ADOREA
ADOREA [1]
Illam, quidquid agit, quoquo vestigia movit
Componit furtim subsequiturque decor.
Tibullus. [2]
When bright Adorea's speaking eyes
Assist her angel smile,
From the soothed breast each trouble flies
And care is charmed the while.
Unconscious of the secret power5
The magic influence spreads,
And her soft voice in that calm hour
The gentlest pleasure sheds
Even thus, a mild and placid light
The equal taper sends,10
Dispels around the gloom of night
And all alike befriends.
But when by every grace arrayed
Attended by each Love,
In the light dance the peerless maid15
Celestial seems to move.
The kindling eye with eager gaze
Her gliding form pursues,
Some new-born beauty still surveys
Varied as Fancy's hues;20
It is not now the lambent flame
The taper's steady light,
Those charms a brighter image claim
Which strike the astonish'd sight.
The blazing torch when waved on high,25
The vivid, dazzling ray,
That strikes at once the daring eye
And flashes in the day.
Soothed or enraptured thus we seem
As she exerts her charms,30
As the same calm or brandished beam
Dazzles, illumes or warms.
Notes
[1] EDITOR'S NOTE: "Adorea" does not appear in Psyche, with Other Poems or Mary (or Collected Poems and Journals) and is undated in Verses. BACK
[2] EDITOR'S NOTE: Tibullus, Elegy 3.8 ("Sulpicia est tibi culta tuis, / Mars magne, kalendis"), lines 7-8: "Whatsoever [Love] does, whithersoever she turns her steps, / Grace follows her unseen to order all aright" (J. P. Postgate translation). BACK
