Page:Sappho and the Vigil of Venus (1920).djvu/30

10 Around fair altars the daughters of Crete

Float in the mystic measure, with feet

Scarce seeming to touch the velvet grass

Whereover the white robes rippling pass.

So danced the Muses, so danced the Graces

Till the low sun flushed the bridal feast

All rosy, and golden uprose in the east

The moon. Then silent, with reverent faces

Those wedded divine ones did they enring

Like unto worshippers compassing

The altar whereunto their gifts they bring.

And Niobe listened as one spell-bound;

And her ears were thrilled with the tale as with sound

Of harpings unearthly; and sigh upon sigh

Brake from her lips, she knew not why.

But when in the darkness she lay on her bed,

Sleep dusky-eyed, the child of Night,

Who on all eyes presses with fingers light,

Upon Niobe's eyes no sleep-dews shed;

But through hush of the darkness ever she heard

Ravishing-sweet the voice of a bird,

Of the nightingale, messenger-herald of Spring;

And to her through the notes did a message ring

Sweet, sweet—yet she could not interpret the thing.

But she waited in trance of expectancy,

Till lo, the star-sown canopy

Of the heavens was cloven, and Eros came

From the brightness beyond; a crimson flame

Was the mantle that vestured him. Came at his side