Mythology & Folklore

Psyche and Cerberus

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806–1861

Translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning · From The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume 5

Mythology & Folklore

A MIGHTY dog with three colossal necks,
And heads in grand proportion; vast as fear,
With jaws that bark the thunder out that breaks
In most innocuous dread for ghosts anear,
Who are safe in death from sorrow: he reclines
Across the threshold of queen Proserpine's
Dark-sweeping halls, and, there, for Pluto's spouse,
Doth guard the entrance of the empty house.
When Psyche threw the cake to him, once amain
He howled up wildly from his hunger-pain,
And was still, after. —

✦ ✦ ✦

From Apuleius, Metamorphoses, Book VI.

MLA

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Psyche and Cerberus.” Translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_e/379/.

Chicago

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Psyche and Cerberus.” Translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_e/379/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Elizabeth Barrett Browning