Page:Hero and Leander (Musaeus) translated by Laurence Eusden (1750).djvu/5

Who-e'er thou art, that hither bend'st thy way,
Oh! for a while the pleasing coast survey!
This, this the tow'r, whence the kind light did guide
The swimming lover to his Sestian bride:
That the fam'd Hellespont, he nightly crost,
Which still in murmurs groans Leander lost.
But haste we love's soft triumphs to relate,
From the first dawnings to its ripen'd state:
And whence the youth so passionate became,
And how the nymph glow'd with as fierce a flame.
Hero from noble blood her line did trace,
Her looks confess'd the glories of her race:
Priestess of Venus too, but chose to reign
In noiseless ease, and shunn'd the nuptial chain.
Far from her parents early she retir'd,
And the safe covert of a tow'r desir'd:
The tow'r was high, and near the water stood;
She seem'd a new-sprung Venus from the flood.