Psyche Propitiating Ceres

Then mother Ceres from afar beheld her,
While Psyche touched, with reverent fingers meek,
The temple's scythes; and with a cry compelled her: —
"O wretched Psyche, Venus roams to seek
Thy wandering footsteps round the weary earth,
Anxious and maddened, and adjures thee forth
To accept the imputed pang, and let her wreak
Full vengeance with full force of deity!
Yet thou, forsooth, art in my temple here,
Touching my scythes, assuming my degree,
And daring to have thoughts that are not fear!"
— But Psyche clung to her feet, and as they moved
Rained tears along their track, tear dropped on tear,
And drew the dust on in her trailing locks,
And still, with passionate prayer, the charge disproved: —
"Now, by thy right hand's gathering from the shocks
Of golden corn, — and by thy gladsome rites
Of harvest, — and thy consecrated sights
Shut safe and mute in chests, — and by the course
Of thy slave-dragons,— and the driving force
Of ploughs along Sicilian glebes profound, —
By thy swift chariot, — by thy steadfast ground, —
By all those nuptial torches that departed
With thy lost daughter,— and by those that shone
Back with her, when she came again glad-hearted, —
And by all other mysteries which are done
In silence at Eleusis, — I beseech thee,
O Ceres, take some pity, and abstain
From giving to my soul extremer pain
Who am the wretched Psyche! Let me teach thee
A little mercy, and have thy leave to spend
A few days only in thy garnered corn,
Until that wrathful goddess, at the end,
Shall feel her hate grow mild the longer borne, —
Or till, alas! — this faintness at my breast
Pass from me, and my spirit apprehend
From life-long woe a breath-time hour of rest!"
—But Ceres answered "I am moved indeed
By prayers so moist with tears, and would defend
The poor beseecher from more utter need:
But where old oaths, anterior ties, commend,
I cannot fail to a sister, lie to a friend,
As Venus is to me. Depart with speed!"