THE OLYMPIC JUPITER.
Calm the Olympian God sat in his marble fane,
High and complete in beauty too pure and vast to wane;
Full in his ample form, Nature appear'd to spread;
Thought and sovran Rule beam'd in his earnest head;
From the lofty foliaged brow, and the mightily bearded chin,
Down over all his frame was the strength of a life within.
Lovely a maid in twilight before the vision knelt,
Looking with upturn'd gaze the awe that her spirit felt.
Hung like the skies above her was bow'd the monarch mild,
Hearing the whisper'd words of the fair and panting child.
—Could she be dear to him as dews to ocean are,
Be in his wreath a leaf, on his robes a golden star!
Could she as incense float around his eternal throne,
Sound as the note of a hymn to his deep ear alone!
Lo! while her heart adoring still to the God exhales,
Speech from his glimmering lips on the silent air prevails:
—"Child of this earth, bewilder'd in thine aërial dream,
Turn thee to Powers that are, and not to those that seem.
All of fairest and noblest filling my graven form
First in a human spirit was breathing alive and warm.
Seek thou in him all else that he can evoke from nought,
Seek the creative master, the king of beautiful thought."
—Down the eyes of the maiden sank from the Thunderer's look,
Pale in her shame and terror, and yet with delight she shook
Swift on her brow she felt a crown by the God bestow'd,
Shading her face that now with a hope too lively glow'd.
Bending the Sculptor stood who wrought the work divine,
Godlike in voice he spake—Ever, oh, maid be mine!
J. S.