No More Learning

O Hymen Hymenaeus io, 185
O Hymen Hymenaeus.

39.

Groom, now 'tis meet thou hither pace,
With bride in genial bed to blend,
For sheenly shines her flowery face
Where the white chamomiles contend 190
With poppies blushing red.

40.

Yet bridegroom (So may Godhead deign
Help me! ) nowise in humbler way
Art fair, nor Venus shall disdain
Thy charms, but look! how wanes the day: 195
Forward, nor loiter more!

41.

No longer loitering makest thou,
Now comest thou. May Venus good
Aid thee when frankly takest thou
Thy wishes won, nor true Love woo'd 200
Thou carest to conceal.

42.

Of Afric's wolds and wilds each grain,
Or constellations glistening,
First reckon he that of the twain
To count alone were fain to bring 205
The many thousand joys.

43.

Play as ye please: soon prove ye deft
At babying babes,--'twere ill design'd
A name thus ancient should be left
Heirless, but issue like of kind 210
Engendered aye should be.

44.
A wee Torquatus fain I'd see
Encradled on his mother's breast
Put forth his tender puds while he
Smiles to his sire with sweetest gest 215
And liplets half apart.

45.

Let son like father's semblance show
(Manlius! ) so with easy guess
All know him where his sire they know,
And still his face and form express 220
His mother's honest love.

46.

Approve shall fair approof his birth
From mother's seed-stock generous,
As rarest fame of mother's worth
Unique exalts Telemachus 225
Penelope's own son.

47.

Fast close the door-leaves, virgin band:
Enow we've played. But ye the fair
New-wedded twain live happy, and
Functions of lusty married pair 230
Exercise sans surcease.

O Fosterer of the Helicon Hill, sprung from Urania, who beareth the gentle
virgin to her mate, O Hymenaeus Hymen, O Hymen Hymenaeus!

Twine round thy temples sweet-smelling flowerets of marjoram; put on thy
gold-tinted veil; light-hearted, hither, hither haste, bearing on snowy
foot the golden-yellow sandal:

And a-fire with the joyous day, chanting wedding melodies with ringing
voice, strike the ground with thy feet, with thine hand swing aloft the
pine-link.

For Vinia--fair as Idalian Venus, when stood before the Phrygian judge--a
virgin fair, weds Manlius 'midst happy auspices.

She, bright-shining as the Asian myrtle florid in branchlets, which the
Hamadryads nurture for their pleasure with besprinkled dew.

Wherefore, hither! leaving the Aonian grot in the Thespian Rock, o'er which
flows the chilling stream of Aganippe.

And summon homewards the mistress, eager for her new yoke, firm-prisoning
her soul in love; as tight-clasping ivy, wandering hither, thither, enwraps
the tree around.