Page:Hero and Leander (Musaeus) translated by Laurence Eusden (1750).djvu/5

 Who-e'er thou art, that hither bend'st thy way, Oh! for a while the pleasing coast survey! This, this the tow'r, whence the kind light did guide The swimming lover to his Sestian bride: That the fam'd Hellespont, he nightly crost, Which still in murmurs groans Leander lost. But haste we love's soft triumphs to relate, From the first dawnings to its ripen'd state: And whence the youth so passionate became, And how the nymph glow'd with as fierce a flame. Hero from noble blood her line did trace, Her looks confess'd the glories of her race: Priestess of Venus too, but chose to reign In noiseless ease, and shunn'd the nuptial chain. Far from her parents early she retir'd, And the safe covert of a tow'r desir'd: The tow'r was high, and near the water stood; She seem'd a new-sprung Venus from the flood.