Pleasure's laughing glances feast
Far amid the statues, where
From the bristles of a beast
Bursts a Venus torso fair!
If you venture hitherward,
With a tender veil to cheat
Glances over-daring, guard
Well your Andalusian feet!
Snow shall fashion like a frame
On your foot's impression rare,
Signing with each step your name
On the carpet soft and vair.
Thus were surly master led
To the hidden trysting-place,
Where his Psyche, faintly red,
Were beheld in Love's embrace.
THE BROOK
Near a great water's waste
A brook mid rock and spar
Came bubbling up in haste,
As though to travel far.
It sang: "What joy to rise!
'T was dismal under ground.
I mirror now the skies.
My banks with green abound.
"Forget-me-nots—how fair!
Beseech me from the grass;
Wings frolic in the air,
And graze me as they pass.
"I yet shall be—who knows?—
A river winding down,
And greeting as it flows
Valley and cliff and town.