Explore "O Aphrodite" by Bliss Carman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O Aphrodite, / God-born and deathless, / Break not my spirit / With bitter anguish: / Thou wilful empress, / I pray thee, hither!
As once aforetime / Well thou didst hearken / To my voice far off, -- / Listen, and leaving / Thy father's golden / House in yoked chariot,
Come, thy fleet sparrows / Beating the mid-air / Over the dark earth. / Suddenly near me, / Smiling, immortal, / Thy bright regard asked
What had befallen, -- / Why I had called thee, -- / What my mad heart then / Most was desiring. / "What fair thing wouldst thou / Lure now to love thee?
"Who wrongs thee, Sappho? / If now she flies thee, / Soon shall she follow; -- / Scorning thy gifts now, / Soon be the giver; -- / And a loth loved one
"Soon be the lover. " / So even now, too, / Come and release me / From mordant love pain, / And all my heart's will / Help me accomplish!