The bounteous bliss of love’s all-charming queen.
Thus by a god and by the first of men
Alike subdued to love, Alcmena gave
Twin-brethren birth, within the seven-fold gates
Of Thebes: yet brethren though they were, unlike
Their natures: this of weaker strain; but that
Far more of man; valorous and stern and strong.
Him, Hercules, conceived she from th’ embrace
Of the cloud-darkener: to th’ Alcæan chief,
Shaker of spears, gave Iphiclus: a race