HYMEN, O HYMENÆE!
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E'en as that flower is lovely maiden's pride,
In her pure virgin home content to bide;
A husband wins her,—and her bloom is sere,
No more to lads a charm, or lasses dear!"—D.
In her pure virgin home content to bide;
A husband wins her,—and her bloom is sere,
No more to lads a charm, or lasses dear!"—D.
The last line is undoubtedly borrowed from a fragment of the Greek erotic poet, Mimmermus; and the whole passage, as Theodore Martin shows, has had its influence upon an admired canto of Spenser's 'Faery Queen' (B. ii. c. xii.)
Will the boys melt and give in, or will they show cause why they should not accept this sad showing of the mischief, for which Hymen and Hesper have the credit? Let us hear their antistrophe:—
"As a lone vine on barren, naked field
Lifts ne'er a shoot, nor mellow grape can yield,
But bends top-heavy with its slender frame,
Till root and branch in level are the same:
Such vine, such field, in their forlorn estate
No peasants till, nor oxen cultivate.
Yet if the same vine with tall elm-tree wed,
Peasants will tend, and oxen till its bed.
So with the maid no lovers' arts engage,
She sinks unprized, unnoticed, into age;
But once let hour and man be duly found,
Her father's pride, her husband's love redound."[1]
—D.
Lifts ne'er a shoot, nor mellow grape can yield,
But bends top-heavy with its slender frame,
Till root and branch in level are the same:
Such vine, such field, in their forlorn estate
No peasants till, nor oxen cultivate.
Yet if the same vine with tall elm-tree wed,
Peasants will tend, and oxen till its bed.
So with the maid no lovers' arts engage,
She sinks unprized, unnoticed, into age;
But once let hour and man be duly found,
Her father's pride, her husband's love redound."[1]
—D.
- ↑ Compare the sentiment of Waller's "Go, Lovely Rose," particularly in the third stanza:—
"Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired;
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired."
