Love.

    Angelic theme of ancient lays!
        By Doric hills, Athenian vales,
    The nations bound thy brows with bays
        And fanned thy cheeks with scented gales;
    While golden lamps illumed thy shrines
        Beside the Tiber and the Po,
        Till anthems thine were taught to flow
    Along the Alps and Appenines.

    The souls of sages and of slaves
        Were faithful servants unto thee,
    Whose rapture soothed the Grecian waves,
        And kissed the islands of the sea;
    And bounding on from strand to strand
        It crossed the coasts and climbed the slopes,
        To place a crown of tender hopes
    Upon the vine-clad Roman land.

    Great empress of that early time,
        Glad ruler of the gentle souls,
    Each year is changed to raptured rhyme
        That o'er thy laughing bosom rolls;
    For cycles as they sink to rest
        So closely guard thy joy and truth,
        That fondness and immortal youth
    Give sweet embraces to thy breast.

    Thou goddess of the Paphian shrine,
        Cytheran queen of Ion's isle,
    Fair Venus from the land of wine,
        The races love thy dewy smile;
    While silent hills and dewy glades
        Bear praises on each breeze that blows,
        Sweet as the breath of morning rose
    That blossoms in the woodland shades!

    Then crown, O, Love, these later days
        With mystic charms of wondrous bliss,
    That lived when thou wert wreathed with bays,
        And nations hungered for thy kiss!
    No more thy temples tower above,
        But lives and bosoms hold thee dear;
        Then come with all thy worth of cheer
        And gentleness, O, mighty Love!