FRAGMENTS. I. THE moon hath sunk beneath the sky: II. MOTHER! Sweet mother! tis in vain; That youth is in my heart and brain; III. WHEN dead, thou shalt in ashes lie, Nor live in human memory: Nor any page in time to come Shall draw thee from thy shrowding tomb. Thee, maiden! shall no eye survey Start from th' obscurer ghosts, and wing thy soaring way. IV. VENUS, come! forsake the sky Mine are these, and these are thine. DID Jove a queen of flowers decree, The rose the queen of flowers should be. Of flowers the eye; of plants the gem; The meadow's blush; earth's diadem: Glory of colours on the gaze Lightening in its beauty's blaze: It breathes of Love: it blooms the guest In gaudy pomp its petals spread : It laughs to the voluptuous air. Erinna. ERINNA. Bef. Ch. 600. REMAINS, EPIGRAMMATIC AND LYRIC. ENGLISH TRANSLATOR: BLAND, ERINNA was a Lesbian, and was the intimate friend of Sappho, whose measure she adopted. She composed, however, in a variety of styles; and, in hexameter verse, was thought to rival Homer. She died at the early age of nineteen, and must certainly have been a prodigy of genius. The poems of Erinna seem to have been extant in the time of Propertius; who alludes to them, while complimenting his mistress. |