The Boys of Venus

Twain are the boys of Venus: one surveys
Benignly this our globe; the other flies
Cities and groves, nor listens to their songs
Nor bears their converse; hardly is he known
By name among them; cold as Eurus, pure
As gusty rain.

What discord tore apart
The brothers? what beside ambition could?
The elder was aggrieved to see the sparks
Shoot from the younger's whetstone as he turn'd
His arrow-barbs, nor pleas'd that he should waste
Day after day in wreathing flowers for crowns,
Or netting meshes to entrap the birds;
And, while rose incense to that idle child,
To him were only empty honors paid.
Bitterly to Silenus he complained.
Entreating him to arbitrate his wrongs
But hearing no remonstrance, mild as were
The wise God's words; they only fann'd his ire.
"Call that Idalian " cried he " then decide."
He did so.

"Brother! was it me you call'd?"
Said the sweet child, whose wings were hanging down
Heavily from both shoulders, and his face
Suffused with shame.

"Will you not even own
Your little brother from Idalia I come,
Let us be friends." Then, turning to the judge,
"Did he not send for me?"

To this appeal
Before Silenus could reply, before

He could, as now he tried, unite their hands,
"Yes,' interrupted the ferocious one,
"I did, that you may now learn who I am"
Silenus smiled, and beckoning, fondly said

"Hither now! kiss each other; I may then
Say which is best: each shall have due reward.
And friend from friend."

At this the lesser lept
And threw his arms about his brother's neck
Turn'd scornfully away, yet many a kiss
He gave it; one, one only, was returned;
For even the brother could not now resist,
Whether such godlike influence must prevail
Or whether of repulsing it ashamed;
Stil neither would he his intent forego
Nor moderate his claim, nor cease to boast
How Chaos he subdued with radiant fire,
How from the sky its darkness he dispel'd,
And how the struggling planets he coerced,
Telling them to what distance they might go,
And chain'd the raging Ocean down with rocks.

"Is not all this enough for you?" replied
The gentler, "envy you my narrow realm?
Denying me my right you raise my plumes,
You make me boast that on my birth there broke
Throughout the heavens above and earth below
A golden light. I do not recollect
What Chaos was, it was before my time;
Where flew the stars about I neither know
Nor care; but her who governs them I drew
Behind the Latmian cliff's, entreating me,
And promising me everything, to grant

Her first and last desire: tho you reside
In heaven with her, and tho she knows your fame,
She knows no love but what is scorn'd by you.
What are sea-shores to me? I penetrate
The inmost halls of Nereus; I command . .
Up spring the dolphins, and their purple backs
I smoothe for timorous harper to bestride:
At losing him, on the dry sands they pine.
Desert you anyone, he heeds it not.
But let me leave him and funereal flames
Burst from his bosom. Your last guest from earth,
When I was angry with him, threw aside
The spindle, broke the thread, and lay before
The gate as any worthless herb might lie.
And gamesome whelps lept over that broad breast.
About the Gods above I would not say
A word to vex you: whether rolls the orb
We stand upon I know not, or who trims
The fires ethereal, or who rules the tides.
If these I yield to you, to me concede
Free laughter and sly kiss; fresh flowers give

me.
And songs the lyre delights in, give the lull
Of reeds among the willows upon banks
Where hollow moss invites and then betrays.
Let me be happy; some have call'd me strong;
Whether I am so, let recorded facts
Declare, in every land performed by me
Under the rising and the setting sun,
Too numerous for a memory weak as mine."
"Scarce more so than your promises" exclaimed
The taunter.

Smiling, blushing too, the child
Acknowledged his forgetfulness . . at times . .
But added,

"Do not make me boast again.
If you pretend contempt for earthly cares
And stand apart from nuptial scenes, and make
No promises that leave so many blest.
But turn aside your face and gaze upon
The dismal depths, and Styx alone adjure.
Pray tell me who made Pluto, by the pool
Of that same Styx and panting Phlegethon
Pant also, while the dog with his three throats
Growl'd and roar'd out? who taught the unwilling

bride
To bear him? it was I, it was my sport.
In his dominions better deeds were mine.
Following this torch and guided by this hand
You might have heard amid the silent shades
The water, drop by drop, fall from the urn
Of the condemned; the wheel you might have heard
Creak, with no human groans from it; thro me
Laodameia met again the youth
She died for, and Eurydice met her's.'

The generous Judge embraced the generous God,
Then tranquilly bespake the other thus.

"O worthy child of thy grave sire! to thee
I give the stars in keeping, with his leave.
And storms and seas and rocks that hold them in
With Neptune's, asking Amphitrite's too.
Thou, lesser of the winged ones! the source
Of genial smiles, who makest every sun
Roll brighter, and ten thousand fall far short

Of one such night as thou alone canst give;
Who holdest back the willing Hours at play,
And makest them run weariless aside
Thy quickest car! be thou with this content.
To thee do I assign thy modest claim.
Write it in thy own words . . The linked hands,
And every flower that Spring most gladly wears,
And every song the quivering lyre of youth
Delights in; and the whispers of the reeds
Under the willows; and the mossy tuft
Dimpling but to betray: should anywhere
Be sweeter whispers, be they also thine
Do thou but" . . then he blusht and lowered his

head
Against the boy's . . " touch gently with thy dart,
So that no mortal see . . Ianthe's breast."