Poetry Archives

Hush, for they call!  If in the shade,
My lute, we twain have idly strayed,
And song for many a season made,
Once more reply;
Once more we’ll play as we have played,
My lute and I!

Roman the song:  the strain you know,
The Lesbian wrought it long ago.
Now singing as he charged the foe,
Now in the bay,
Where safe in the shore-water’s flow
His galleys lay.

So sang he Bacchus and the Nine,
And Venus and her boy divine,
And Lycus of the dusky eyne,
The dusky hair;
So shalt thou sing, ah, Lute of mine,
Of all things fair;

Apollo’s glory!  Sounding shell,
Thou lute, to Jove desirable,
When soft thine accents sigh and swell
At festival—
Delight more dear than words can tell,
Attend my call!