66 ANACREONTICS
Mix'd with the liquid liglit that lies 25
111 Cytherea's ^ languid eyes.
O'er her nose and cheek be shed
Flushing white and soften'd red ;
Mingling tints, as when there glows
In snowy milk the bashful rose. au
Then her lip, so rich in blisses,
Sweet petitioner for kisses.
Rosy nest, where lurks Persuasion,
Mutely courting Love's invasion.
Next, beneath the velvet chin, 35
Whose dimple hides a Love within.
Mould her neck with grace descending,
In a heaven of beauty ending ;
While countless charms, above, below,
Sport and flutter round its snow. 40
Now let a floating, lucid veil
Shadow her form, but not conceal ;
A charm may peep, a hue may beam,
And leave the rest to Fancy's dream.
Enough — 't is she ! 't is all I seek ; 45
It glows, it lives, it soon will speak !
DRINKING SONG. ODE XXI. Observe when Mother Earth is dry, She drinks the droppings of the sky ; And then the dewy cordial gives To ev'ry thirsty plant that lives. The vapours, which at evening weep, δ
Are beverage to the swelling deep ; And when the rosy sun appears, He drinks the ocean's misty tears.
- Venus took this name from the island of Cythera, one of her
favorite haunts, near Sparta.
