Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/135

 Into her turrets; and her virgin waist The wealthy girdle of the sea embrac'd: Till our Leander, that made Mars his Cupid, For soft love-suits, with iron thunders chid: Swum to her towns, dissolv'd her virgin zone; Lead in his power, and made Confusion Run through her streets amaz'd, that she suppos'd She had not been in her own walls enclos'd: But rapt by wonder to some foreign state, Seeing all her issue so disconsolate: And all her peaceful mansions possess'd With war's just spoil, and many a foreign guest From every corner driving an enjoyer, Supplying it with power of a destroyer. So far'd fair Hero in th' expugned fort Of her chaste bosom; and of every sort Strange thoughts possess'd her, ransacking her breast, For that which was not there, her wonted rest! She was a mother straight, and bore with pain Thoughts that spake straight, and wish'd their mother slain; She hates their lives, and they their own and hers; Such strife still grows where sin the race prefers. Love is a golden bubble, full of dreams, That waking breaks, and fills us with extremes.