T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
To Pyrrha
By Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 B.C.)(Ode V. Book I; translated by Sir Theodore Martin, 1881) |
PYRRHA, what slender boy, in perfume steeped, | |
| Doth in the shade of some delightful grot | |
| Caress thee now on couch with roses heaped? | |
| For whom dost thou thine amber tresses knot | |
| With all thy seeming-artless grace? Ah me, | 5 |
| How oft will he thy perfidy bewail, | |
| And joys all flown, and shudder at the sea | |
| Rough with the chafing of the blust’rous gale, | |
| Who now, fond dreamer, revels in thy charms; | |
| Who, all unweeting how the breezes veer, | 10 |
| Hopes still to find a welcome in thine arms | |
| As warm as now, and thee as loving-dear! | |
| Ah, woe for those on whom thy spell is flung! | |
| My votive tablet, in the temple set, | |
| Proclaims that I to ocean’s god have hung | 15 |
| The vestments in my shipwreck smirched and wet. | |