etttot of ^phvoMft, 
 
 ^Y pRANT ^LLEN. 
 
 Deep in Cythera a cave, 
 
 Pealing a thunderous ptean, 
 Roars, as the shivering wave 
 
 Whitens the purple ^Egean ; 
 There to astonish the globe, 
 
 Terrible, beautiful, mighty, 
 Clad with desire as a robe. 
 
 Rose Aphrodite. 
 
 Never again upon earth 
 
 Like her arose any other ; 
 Got without labour or birth. 
 
 Sprung without father or mother ; 
 Zeus, from his aery home, 
 
 Seeing the roseate water 
 Lift her aloft on its foam. 
 
 Hailed her his daughter. 
 
 Sweet was her shape, and is now ; 
 
 Sweeter the breath of her kisses ; 
 Delicate ivory brow ; 
 
 Wealth of ambrosial tresses ; 
 Mouth that no favour denies ; 
 
 Cheek that no ardour abashes ; 
 Languishing eyelids and eyes. 
 
 Languishing lashes. 
 
 Seeing her luminous face 
 
 Shine as the ocean that bore her, 
 Every nation and race 
 
 Worshipped her, falling before her ; 
 Chaplets they culled for her fane, 
 
 Fairer than any can cull us ; 
 Greece gave her Sappho's refrain, 
 
 Rome her Catullus. 
 
 Soft was the sound of their lyre. 
 
 Luscious their lay without cloying, 
 Till, as a billow of fire, 
 
 Crushing, consuming, destroying, 
 Wasting her wines in their spleen. 
 
 Spilling her costly cosmetics, 
 Swept the implacable, lean 
 
 Horde of ascetics. 
 
 Darkness they spread over earth. 
 
 Sorrow and fasting of faces ; 
 Mute was the music of mirth. 
 
 Hushed was the chorus of Graces : 
 Back to the womb of the wave. 
 
 Terrible, beautiful, mighty, 
 Back with the boons that she gave. 
 
 Sank Aphrodite. 
 
 Down the abysses of time 
 
 Rolled the unchangeable ages, 
 Reft of the glory of rhyme 
 
 Graven in passionate pages ; >. 
 
 Sad was the measure, and cold, ' 
 
 Dead to the language of kisses ; 
 Sadly the centuries rolled 
 
 Down the abysses. 
 
 Now in the ends of the earth 
 
 Tenderer singers and sweeter, 
 Smit with a ravening dearth, 
 
 Cry on the goddess and greet her ; 
 Cry with their rapturous eyes 
 
 Flashing the fire of emotion ; 
 Call her again to arise 
 
 Fresh from the ocean. 
 
 Hot as of old are their songs, 
 
 Breathing of odorous tresses, 
 Murmur of amorous tongues, 
 
 Ardour of fervid caresses ; 
 Trilled with a tremulous mouth 
 
 Into the ear of the comer. 
 Warm as the breath of the South, 
 
 Soft as the Summer. 
 
 Under the depth of the wave. 
 
 Hearing their passionate numbers, 
 Piercing her innermost cave, 
 
 Waken her out of her slumberi. 
 Soothed with the sound of their strain, 
 
 Beautiful, merciful, mighty, 
 Back to the nations again 
 
 Comes Aphrodite. 
 
 — Temple Bar.