Edwin Arnold

“ Rouse thee—a little, Adonis! kiss back for the last time, beloved!
Kiss me—kiss me—only so long as the life of a kiss is!
So I may suck from thy soul to my mouth, to my innermost heart-beat,
All the breath of thy life, and take the last of its love-spell
Unto the uttermost drop—one kiss! I will tenderly keep it
As I did thee, my Adonis, sith thou dost leave me, Adonis!
Utterly hapless my fate, and utterly hopeless my grief is,
Weeping my love who is dead to me; hating the Fate that hath slain him.
Fled is my joy, like a dream; thou art dead, thrice lovely and longed for! ”

“ Queen Cytheræa is widowed—the Loves in my bowers are idle—
Gone my charmed girdle with thee; why, rash one, went’st thou a-hunting?—
Mad wert thou, being so fair, to match thee with beasts of the forest. ”