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2.

If, when the wintry tempest roared,

He sped to Hero, nothing loth,

And thus of old thy current poured,

Fair Venus! how I pity both!

3.

For me, degenerate modern wretch,
Though in the genial month of May,

My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,

And think I've done a feat to-day.

4.

But since he crossed the rapid tide,

According to the doubtful story,

To woo,-and-Lord knows what beside,

And swam for Love, as I for Glory;

5.

"Twere hard to say who fared the best:

Sad mortals! thus the Gods still plague you! He lost his labour, I my jest:

For he was drowned, and I've the ague.

VII.

SONG.

Ζάη με, σὰς ἀγαπῶ.

ATHENS, 1810.

1.

MAID of Athens, ere we part,
Give, oh, give me back my heart!

Or, since that has left my breast,
Keep it now, and take the rest!

Hear my vow before I go,

Ζώη μέ, σάς ἀγαπῶ.

2.

By those tresses unconfined,

Wooed by each Ægean wind;

By those lids whose jetty fringe

Kiss thy soft cheeks' blooming tinge;

By those wild eyes like the roe,

Ζώη με, σας αγαπώ.

3.

By that lip I long to taste;

By that zone-encircled waist;

By all the token-flowers3 that tell

What words can never speak so well;

By Love's alternate joy and woe,

Ζώη με, σὰς ἀγαπῶ.

4.

Maid of Athens! I am gone:

Think of me, sweet! when alone.

Though I fly to Istambol*,

Athens holds my heart and soul:

Can I cease to love thee? No!

Ζώη με, σας αγαπώ.

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