could the labyrinth pierce—    Which nerves the weak, and curbs the fierce, And wings with wit the dull;—    That love which o'er the furrowed land Bowed—tame beneath young Jason's hand—     The fiery-snorting bull! Yes, Styx itself, that ninefold flows, Has love, the fearless, ventured o'er, And back to daylight borne the bride, From Pluto's dreary shore! What marvel then that wind and wave, Leander doth but burn to brave, When love, that goads him, guides! Still when the day, with fainter glimmer, Wanes pale—he leaps, the daring swimmer, Amid the darkening tides; With lusty arms he cleaves the waves, And strikes for that dear strand afar;    Where high from Hero's lonely tower Lone streams the beacon-star. In vain his blood the wave may chill, These tender arms can warm it still—     And, weary if the way, By many a sweet embrace, above All earthly boons—can liberal love The lover's toil repay, Until Aurora breaks the dream, And warns the loiterer to depart—    Back to the ocean's icy bed, Scared from that loving heart. So thirty suns have sped their flight—    Still in that theft of sweet delight Exult the happy pair; Caress will never pall caress, And joys that gods might envy, bless The single bride-night there. Ah! never he has rapture known, Who has not, where the waves are driven Upon the fearful shores of hell, Plucked fruits that taste of heaven! Now changing in their season are, The morning and the Hesper star;—     Nor see those happy eyes The leaves that withering droop and fall, Nor hear, when, from its northern hall, The neighboring winter sighs; Or, if they see, the shortening days But seem to them to close in kindness; For longer joys, in lengthening nights, They thank the heaven in blindness. It is the time, when night and day, In equal scales contend for sway 35—     Lone, on her rocky steep, Lingers the girl with wistful eyes That watch the sun-steeds down the skies, Careering towards the deep. Lulled lay the smooth and silent sea, A mirror in translucent calm, The breeze, along that crystal realm, Unmurmuring, died in balm. In wanton swarms and blithe array, The merry dolphins glide and play Amid the silver waves. In gray and dusky troops are seen, The hosts that serve the ocean-queen, Upborne from coral caves:    They—only they—have witnessed love To rapture steal its secret way:    And Hecate 36 seals the only lips That could the tale betray! She marks in joy the lulled water, And Sestos, thus thy tender daughter, Soft-flattering, woos the sea!    "Fair god—and canst thou then betray? No! falsehood dwells with 

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