Page:Poems and ballads (IA poemsballads00swinrich).pdf/208

Then still, through dry seasons and moister,
One god had a wreath to his shrine;
Then love was the pearl of his oyster,^[1]
And Venus rose red out of wine.
We have all done amiss, choosing rather
Such loves as the wise gods disdain;
Intercede for us thou with thy father,
Our Lady of Pain.

In spring he had crowns of his garden,
Red corn in the heat of the year,
Then hoary green olives that harden
When the grape-blossom freezes with fear;
And milk-budded myrtles with Venus
And vine-leaves with Bacchus he trod;
And ye said, "We have seen, he hath seen us,
A visible God."

What broke off the garlands that girt you?
What sundered you spirit and clay?
Weak sins yet alive are as virtue
To the strength of the sins of that day.
For dried is the blood of thy lover,
Ipsithilla, contracted the vein;
Cry aloud, "Will he rise and recover,
Our Lady of Pain?"

1. "Nam te præcipuè in suis urbibus colit ora
   Hellespontia, cæteris ostreosior oris."
   Catull. Carm. xviii.