Page:Sappho and the Vigil of Venus (1920).djvu/54

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Through the sky and through the lands and through the under-heaving sea

By her fructifying paths she held her sway unswervingly.

She hath poured the generative breath through all the veins of earth.

She hath bidden all the universe to know the ways of birth.

Tomorn who ne'er hath loved shall love, and who hath loved shall love tomorn.

She bestowed Laurentum's daughter to be bride unto her son.

By her grace from Vesta's cloister Mars the shamefast maiden won,

Her from whom sprang Roman burghers, sprang a seed of blood divine,

Romulus our sire, and Caesar, far descendant of her line.

Tomorn who ne'er hath loved shall love, and who hath loved shall love tomorn.

Rapture quickens all the pastures, fields with Venus' coming thrill;

Love himself, Dione's babe, was born mid meadow-land and hill.