Stronger far than warrior's dress
Is her helpless loveliness.
Safety smiles in beauty's eyes,
She the hostile flame defies:
Fiercest swords submissive fall—
Lovely woman conquers all!
ODE III.—CUPID BENIGHTED.[1]
'Twas at the solemn midnight hour,
When silence reigns with awful pow'r,
Just when the bright and glittering Bear[2]
Is yielding to her keeper's care;
When, spent with toil, with cares oppress'd,
Man's busy race has sunk to rest,
Sly Cupid, sent by cruel fate,
Stood loudly knocking at my gate.
"Who's there," I cried, "at this late hour?
Who is it batters thus my door?
Begone! you break my blissful dreams."
But he, on mischief bent, it seems,
With feeble voice and piteous cries
In childish accents thus replies:
"Be not alarm'd, kind sir, 'tis I,
A little, wretched, wandering boy.
Pray ope the door—I've lost my way
This moonless night—alone I stray:
I'm stiff with cold, I'm drench'd all o'er;
For pity's sake pray ope the door."
Touch'd with this simple tale of wo,
And little dreaming of a foe,
- ↑ Longuepierre has observed that this is one of the most beautiful odes in the collection; and it is, I think, a good proof of the truth of this remark, that after a lapse of more than two thousand years its spirit and meaning are still preserved, and are to be found imbodied in a pretty little song, which was a few years ago a popular favourite.
- ↑ The Bear and Boötes, or the Bearkeeper, are two constellations near the North Pole.
