No More Learning

Iris' scarf is the rainbow, she being sky-messenger for Hera (the Greek great-goddess). Isis returns as Venus from the waves but fused with Mary, the Stella Maris.

Delfica

Do you know it, Daphne, that ballad of old,

At the sycamore-foot, or beneath the white laurels,

Under myrtle or olive or trembling willows,

That song of love that resounds forever? . . .

Do you know it, the Temple with vast peristyle,

And the lemons, bitter, marked by your teeth,

And the grotto fatal to imprudent guests,

Where the vanquished dragon's ancient seed sleeps? . . .

Those gods you endlessly weep will return!

Time bring back the order of classic days;

Earth has shuddered with prophetic breath. . .

Yet the sibyl with Latinate face still sleeps

Under the arch of Constantine

- And the austere portico nothing disturbs.
Note: There are references to a visit to the Temple of Isis at Pompeii with an English girl, Octavia (who tasted a lemon), and to the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli. Constantine's Arch is in Rome. Condensed mythological references abound.

Artemis

The thirteenth returns. . . She's forever the first;

And always the sole one - or the sole instant;

For are you queen, O you, the first or the last?

Are you king, you the sole or the last lover? . . .

Love him who loved you from cradle to bier;

She I alone loved still loves me tenderly:

She is death - or the dead one. . . O joy! O torment!