Robinson Ellis - Catullus (Part LXII) lyrics

YOUTHS. Hesper is here; rise youths, rise all of you; high on Olympus Hesper his orb long-look'd for aloft 'gins slowly to kindle. Time is now to arise, from tables costly to part us; Now doth a virgin approach, now soundeth a glad Hymenaeal. Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus. VIRGINS. See ye yon youthful band? O, maidens, rise ye to meet them. Comes not Night's bright bearer a fire o'er Oeta revealing? Surely; for even now, in a moment all have arisen,[Pg 46] Not for nought have arisen; a song waits, goodly to gaze on. Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus. YOUTHS. No light victory this, O comrades, ready before us. Busy the virgins muse, their practis'd ditty recalling, Muse nor shall miscarry; a song for memory waits us. Rightly; for all their souls do inwards labour in issue. We—our thoughts one way, our ears have drifted another, So comes worthy defeat; no victory calls to the careless. Come then, in even race let thought their melody rival; They must open anon; 'twere better anon be replying. Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus. VIRGINS. Hesper, moveth in heaven a light more tyrannous ever? Thou from a mother's arms canst wrest her daughter asunder, Wrest from a mother's arms her daughter woefully clinging, Then to the burning youth his virgin beauty deliver. Foes in a new-sack'd town, when wrought they crueller ever? Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus. YOUTHS. Hesper, shineth in heaven a light more genial ever? Thou with a bridal flame true lovers' unity crownest, All which duly the men, which plighted duly the parents, Then completed alone, when thou in splendour awakest.30 When shone an happier hour than thy god-speeded arriving? Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus. VIRGINS. Sisters, Hesper a fellow of our bright company taketh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus. YOUTHS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hesper, awaiting thee each sentinel holdeth alarum. Night veils love's false thieves; thieves still when, Hesper, another Name, but unalter'd still, thou tak'st them surely, returning. Yet be the maidens pleas'd in woeful fancy to chide thee. Maybe for all they chide, their hearts do inly desire thee. Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus. VIRGINS. Look in a garden-croft when a flower privily growing, Hid from grazing kine, by ploughshare never y-broken, Strok'd by the breeze, by the sun nurs'd sturdily, rear'd by the showers; Many a wistful boy, and maidens many desire it: Yet if a slender nail hath nipt his bloom to deflour it, Never a wistful boy, nor maidens any desire it: Such is a girl untoy'd with as yet, yet lovely to kinsmen; Once her body profan'd, herflow'r of chastity blighted, Boys no more she delights, nor seems so lovely to maidens; Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus. YOUTHS. Look as a lone lorn vine in a bare field sorrily growing, Never an arm uplifts, no grape to maturity ripens, Only with headlong weight her tender body declining, Bows, till topmost spray and roots meet feebly together; Her no peasant swain, nor bullock tendeth her ever; Yet to the bachelor elm if marriage-fortune unite her, Many a peasant tills and bullocks many about her; Such is a maid untoy'd with as yet, in loneliness aging; Wins she a bridegroom meet, in time's warm fulness arriving, So to the man more dear, and less unlovely to parents. O then, clasp thy love, nor fight, fair maiden, against him. Sin 'twere surely to fight; thy father gave to his arms thee, Father's self and mother; obey nor wrongly defy them. . . . . . . . . . . Virgin's crown thou claim'st not alone, but partly the parents, Father's one whole part, one goes to the mother allotted, Rests one only to thee; O fight not with them alone thou, Both to a son their rights and both their dowry deliver. Hymen O Hymenaeus, O Hymen come Hymenaeus.