Soothe, vex, enliven, and distract my life?
I’ll cling to thee for better, and for worse,
Our joy, our grief, our blessing, and our curse.
Let those who are not satisfied with this mixture of compliment and sarcasm read the following, and see with what yearning anguish a Greek could mourn over the grave of a loved one, who had passed what was, to the ancients, with emphatic truth “the valley of the shadow of death.” It is by Meleager, one of the most delicate and affectingly simple of all the Greek poets.
To thee, transported by that cruel Power,
Who waves his sceptre over all that live,
Tears wept in darkness at the midnight hour,
Oh! Heliodora! bitterly I give.
Thy home’s low roof with ceaseless tears I wet,
In deep, and wild, and passionate regret.