Venus's Looking-Glass

I marked where lovely Venus and her court

With song and dance and merry laugh went by;

Weightless, their wingless feet seemed made to fly,

Bound from the ground and in mid air to sport.

Left far behind I heard the dolphins snort,

Tracking their goddess with a wistful eye,

Around whose head white doves rose, wheeling high

Or low, and cooed after their tender sort.

All this I saw in Spring. Through Summer heat

I saw the lovely Queen of Love no more.

But when flushed Autumn through the woodlands went

I spied sweet Venus walk amid the wheat:

Whom seeing, every harvester gave o'er

His toil, and laughed and hoped and was content.