SEMICHORUS Oh tyrant Love! hast thou possest The prudent, learn'd, and virtuous breast? Wisdom and wit in vain reclaim, And arts but soften us to feel thy flame. Love, soft intruder, enters here, But entring learns to be sincere. Marcus with blushes owns he loves, And Brutus tenderly reproves. Why, virtue, doest thou blame desire, Which nature has imprest? Why, nature, dost thou soonest fire The mild and gen'rous breast? CHORUS Love's purer flames the Gods approve; The Gods, and Brutus bend to love: Brutus for absent Portia sighs, And sterner Cassius melts at Junia's eyes. What is loose love? a transient gust, Spent in a sudden storm of lust, A vapour fed from wild desire, A wandring, self-consuming fire. But Hymen's kinder flames unite; And burn for ever one; Chaste as cold Cynthia's virgin light, Productive as the Sun. SEMICHORUS Oh source of ev'ry social tye, United wish, and mutual joy! What various joys on one attend, As son, as father, brother, husband, friend! Whether his hoary sire he spies, While thousand grateful thoughts arise; Or meets his spouse's fonder eye; Or views his smiling progeny; What tender passions take their turns, What home-felt raptures move! His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns, With rev'rence, hope, and love. CHORUS Hence guilty joys, distastes, surmizes, Hence false tears, deceits, disguises, Dangers, doubts, delays, surprizes; Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine: Purest love's unwasting treasure, Constant faith, fair hope, long leisure, Days of ease, and nights of pleasure; Sacred Hymen! these are thine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WIFE A-LOST by WILLIAM BARNES OUR COUNTRY'S CALL by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT STANZAS by GEORGE GORDON BYRON AUF WIEDERSEHEN! SUMMER by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SONNET by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY TO S.M., A YOUNG AFRICAN PAINTER, ON SEEING HIS WORKS by PHILLIS WHEATLEY |