Your folds ye
gateways
wide-ope swing!
Catullus - Carmina
What God than other Godheads more
Must love-sick wights for aid implore?
Whose Godhead foremost shall adore
Mankind? O Hymenaeus Hymen,
O Hymen Hymenaeus. 50
11.
Thee for his own the trembling sire
Invokes, thee Virgins ever sue
Who laps of zone to loose aspire,
And thee the bashful bridegrooms woo
With ears that long to hear. 55
12.
Thou to the hand of love-fierce swain
Deliverest maiden fair and fain,
From mother's fondling bosom ta'en
Perforce, O Hymen? us Hymen
O Hymen Hymenaeus. 60
13.
Thou lacking, Venus ne'er avails--
While Fame approves for honesty--
Love-joys to lavish: ne'er she fails
Thou willing:--with such Deity
Whoe'er shall dare compare? 65
14.
Thou wanting, never son and heir
The Hearth can bear, nor parents be
By issue girt, yet can it bear,
Thou willing:--with such Deity,
Whoe'er shall dare compare? 70
15.
An lack a land thy sacring rite,
The perfect rule we ne'er shall see
Reach Earth's far bourne; yet such we sight,
Thou willing:--with such Deity
Whoe'er shall dare compare? 75
16.
Your folds ye gateways wide-ope swing!
The maiden comes. Seest not the sheen
Of links their splendent tresses fling?
Let shame retard the modest mien.
* * * *
17.
* * * *
* * * *
* * * *
Who more she hears us weeps the more, 80
That needs she must advance. 81
18.
Cease raining tear-drops! not for thee, (86)
Aurunculeia, risk we deem,
That fairer femininety
Clear day outdawned from Ocean stream 85
Shall ever more behold. (90)
19.
Such in the many-tinted bower
Of rich man's garden passing gay
Upstands the hyacinthine flower.
But thou delayest, wanes the day: 90
_Prithee, come forth new Bride. _
20.
Prithee, come forth new Bride! methinks,
Drawing in sight, the talk we hold
Thou haply hearest. See the Links!