Sappho To Phaon. From The Fifteenth Of Ovid's Epistles. - Translations And Imitations Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Alexander Pope

Sappho To Phaon. From The Fifteenth Of Ovid's Epistles. - Translations And Imitations Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Say lovely youth that dost my heart command	A
Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's hand	A
Must then her name the wretched writer prove	B
To thy remembrance lost as to thy love	C
Ask not the cause that I new numbers choose	D
The lute neglected and the lyric Muse	D
Love taught my tears in sadder notes to flow	E
And tuned my heart to elegies of woe	E
I burn I burn as when through ripen'd corn	F
By driving winds the spreading flames are borne	F
Phaon to tna's scorching fields retires	G
While I consume with more than tna's fires	H
No more my soul a charm in music finds	I
Music has charms alone for peaceful minds	I
Soft scenes of solitude no more can please	J
Love enters there and I'm my own disease	J
No more the Lesbian dames my passion move	B
Once the dear objects of my guilty love	C
All other loves are lost in only thine	K
Ah youth ungrateful to a flame like mine	K
Whom would not all those blooming charms surprise	L
Those heavenly looks and dear deluding eyes	L
The harp and bow would you like Phoebus bear	M
A brighter Phoebus Phaon might appear	N
Would you with ivy wreath your flowing hair	M
Not Bacchus' self with Phaon could compare	M
Yet Phoebus loved and Bacchus felt the flame	O
One Daphne warm'd and one the Cretan dame	O
Nymphs that in verse no more could rival me	P
Than e'en those gods contend in charms with thee	P
The Muses teach me all their softest lays	Q
And the wide world resounds with Sappho's praise	Q
Though great Alcaeus more sublimely sings	R
And strikes with bolder rage the sounding strings	R
No less renown attends the moving lyre	S
Which Venus tunes and all her loves inspire	S
To me what nature has in charms denied	T
Is well by wit's more lasting flames supplied	T
Though short my stature yet my name extends	U
To heaven itself and earth's remotest ends	U
Brown as I am an Ethiopian dame	O
Inspired young Perseus with a generous flame	O
Turtles and doves of different hues unite	V
And glossy jet is pair'd with shining white	V
If to no charms thou wilt thy heart resign	K
But such as merit such as equal thine	K
By none alas by none thou canst be moved	W
Phaon alone by Phaon must be loved	X
Yet once thy Sappho could thy cares employ	Y
Once in her arms you centred all your joy	Y
No time the dear remembrance can remove	B
For oh how vast a memory has love	C
My music then you could for ever hear	Z
And all my words were music to your ear	Z
You stopp'd with kisses my enchanting tongue	A2
And found my kisses sweeter than my song	B2
In all I pleased but most in what was best	C2
And the last joy was dearer than the rest	C2
Then with each word each glance each motion fired	D2
You still enjoy'd and yet you still desired	D2
Till all dissolving in the trance we lay	E2
And in tumultuous raptures died away	E2
The fair Sicilians now thy soul inflame	O
Why was I born ye gods a Lesbian dame	O
But ah beware Sicilian nymphs nor boast	F2
That wandering heart which I so lately lost	G2
Nor be with all those tempting words abused	H2
Those tempting words were all to Sappho used	H2
And you that rule Sicilia's happy plains	I2
Have pity Venus on your poet's pains	I2
Shall fortune still in one sad tenor run	J2
And still increase the woes so soon begun	J2
Inured to sorrow from my tender years	K2
My parents' ashes drank my early tears	L2
My brother next neglecting wealth and fame	O
Ignobly burn'd in a destructive flame	O
An infant daughter late my griefs increased	M2
And all a mother's cares distract my breast	C2
Alas what more could Fate itself impose	N2
But thee the last and greatest of my woes	N2
No more my robes in waving purple flow	E
Nor on my hand the sparkling diamonds glow	E
No more my locks in ringlets curl'd diffuse	O2
The costly sweetness of Arabian dews	D
Nor braids of gold the varied tresses bind	P2
That fly disorder'd with the wanton wind	P2
For whom should Sappho use such arts as these	J
He's gone whom only she desired to please	J
Cupid's light darts my tender bosom move	B
Still is there cause for Sappho still to love	C
So from my birth the Sisters fix'd my doom	Q2
And gave to Venus all my life to come	R2
Or while my Muse in melting notes complains	I2
My yielding heart keeps measure to my strains	I2
By charms like thine which all my soul have won	J2
Who might not ah who would not be undone	J2
For those Aurora Cephalus might scorn	F
And with fresh blushes paint the conscious morn	F
For those might Cynthia lengthen Phaon's sleep	S2
And bid Endymion nightly tend his sheep	S2
Venus for those had rapt thee to the skies	L
But Mars on thee might look with Venus' eyes	L
Oh scarce a youth yet scarce a tender boy	Y
Oh useful time for lovers to employ	Y
Pride of thy age and glory of thy race	T2
Come to these arms and melt in this embrace	T2
The vows you never will return receive	U2
And take at least the love you will not give	V2
See while I write my words are lost in tears	L2
The less my sense the more my love appears	K2
Sure 'twas not much to bid one kind adieu	W2
At least to feign was never hard to you	W2
'Farewell my Lesbian love ' you might have said	X2
Or coldly thus 'Farewell O Lesbian maid '	Y2
No tear did you no parting kiss receive	U2
Nor knew I then how much I was to grieve	U2
No lover's gift your Sappho could confer	Z2
And wrongs and woes were all you left with her	Z2
No charge I gave you and no charge could give	V2
But this 'Be mindful of our loves and live '	Y2
Now by the Nine those powers adored by me	P
And Love the god that ever waits on thee	P
When first I heard from whom I hardly knew	W2
That you were fled and all my joys with you	W2
Like some sad statue speechless pale I stood	A3
Grief chill'd my breast and stopp'd my freezing blood	B3
No sigh to rise no tear had power to flow	E
Fix'd in a stupid lethargy of woe	E
But when its way the impetuous passion found	C3
I rend my tresses and my breast I wound	C3
I rave then weep I curse and then complain	D3
Now swell to rage now melt in tears again	E3
Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame	O
Whose first born infant feeds the funeral flame	O
My scornful brother with a smile appears	K2
Insults my woes and triumphs in my tears	L2
His hated image ever haunts my eyes	L
'And why this grief thy daughter lives ' he cries	L
Stung with my love and furious with despair	M
All torn my garments and my bosom bare	M
My woes thy crimes I to the world proclaim	O
Such inconsistent things are love and shame	O
'Tis thou art all my care and my delight	V
My daily longing and my dream by night	V
Oh night more pleasing than the brightest day	E2
When fancy gives what absence takes away	E2
And dress'd in all its visionary charms	F3
Restores my fair deserter to my arms	F3
Then round your neck in wanton wreaths I twine	K
Then you methinks as fondly circle mine	K
A thousand tender words I hear and speak	G3
A thousand melting kisses give and take	H3
Then fiercer joys I blush to mention these	J
Yet while I blush confess how much they please	J
But when with day the sweet delusions fly	I3
And all things wake to life and joy but I	I3
As if once more forsaken I complain	D3
And close my eyes to dream of you again	E3
Then frantic rise and like some Fury rove	J3
Through lonely plains and through the silent grove	J3
As if the silent grove and lonely plains	I2
That knew my pleasures could relieve my pains	I2
I view the grotto once the scene of love	C
The rocks around the hanging roofs above	C
That charm'd me more with native moss o'ergrown	E3
Than Phrygian marble or the Parian stone	E3
I find the shades that veil'd our joys before	K3
But Phaon gone those shades delight no more	K3
Here the press'd herbs with bending tops betray	E2
Where oft entwined in amorous folds we lay	E2
I kiss that earth which once was press'd by you	W2
And all with tears the withering herbs bedew	E2
For thee the fading trees appear to mourn	E3
And birds defer their songs till thy return	E3
Night shades the groves and all in silence lie	I3
All but the mournful Philomel and I	I3
With mournful Philomel I join my strain	E3
Of Tereus she of Phaon I complain	E3
	-
A spring there is whose silver waters show	E
Clear as a glass the shining sands below	E
A flowery lotus spreads its arms above	C
Shades all the banks and seems itself a grove	J3
Eternal greens the mossy margin grace	T2
Watch'd by the sylvan genius of the place	T2
Here as I lay and swell'd with tears the flood	E2
Before my sight a watery virgin stood	E2
She stood and cried 'O you that love in vain	E3
Fly hence and seek the fair Leucadian main	E3
There stands a rock from whose impending steep	S2
Apollo's fane surveys the rolling deep	S2
There injured lovers leaping from above	C
Their flames extinguish and forget to love	C
Deucalion once with hopeless fury burn'd	E2
In vain he loved relentless Pyrrha scorn'd	E2
But when from hence he plunged into the main	E3
Deucalion scorn'd and Pyrrha loved in vain	E3
Haste Sappho haste from high Leucadia throw	E
Thy wretched weight nor dread the deeps below '	-
She spoke and vanish'd with the voice I rise	L
And silent tears fall trickling from my eyes	L
I go ye nymphs those rocks and seas to prove	B
How much I fear but ah how much I love	C
I go ye nymphs where furious love inspires	G
Let female fears submit to female fires	H
To rocks and seas I fly from Phaon's hate	E2
And hope from seas and rocks a milder fate	E2
Ye gentle gales beneath my body blow	E
And softly lay me on the waves below	E
And thou kind Love my sinking limbs sustain	E3
Spread thy soft wings and waft me o'er the main	E3
Nor let a lover's death the guiltless flood profane	E3
On Phoebus' shrine my harp I'll then bestow	E
And this inscription shall be placed below	E
'Here she who sung to him that did inspire	S
Sappho to Phoebus consecrates her lyre	S
What suits with Sappho Phoebus suits with thee	P
The gift the giver and the god agree '	-
	-
But why alas relentless youth ah why	I3
To distant seas must tender Sappho fly	I3
Thy charms than those may far more powerful be	P
And Phoebus' self is less a god to me	P
Ah canst thou doom me to the rocks and sea	P
Oh far more faithless and more hard than they	E2
Ah canst thou rather see this tender breast	E2
Dash'd on these rocks than to thy bosom press'd	E2
This breast which once in vain you liked so well	L3
Where the Loves play'd and where the Muses dwell	L3
Alas the Muses now no more inspire	S
Untuned my lute and silent is my lyre	S
My languid numbers have forgot to flow	E
And fancy sinks beneath a weight of woe	E
Ye Lesbian virgins and ye Lesbian dames	M3
Themes of my verse and objects of my flames	M3
No more your groves with my glad songs shall ring	N3
No more these hands shall touch the trembling string	N3
My Phaon's fled and I those arts resign	E3
Wretch that I am to call that Phaon mine	E3
Return fair youth return and bring along	B2
Joy to my soul and vigour to my song	B2
Absent from thee the poet's flame expires	H
But ah how fiercely burn the lover's fires	H
Gods can no prayers no sighs no numbers move	B
One savage heart or teach it how to love	C
The winds my prayers my sighs my numbers bear	M
The flying winds have lost them all in air	M
Oh when alas shall more auspicious gales	O3
To these fond eyes restore thy welcome sails	O3
If you return ah why these long delays	Q
Poor Sappho dies while careless Phaon stays	Q
Oh launch thy bark nor fear the watery plain	E3
Venus for thee shall smooth her native main	E3
Oh launch thy bark secure of prosperous gales	O3
Cupid for thee shall spread the swelling sails	O3
If you will fly yet ah what cause can be	P
Too cruel youth that you should fly from me	P
If not from Phaon I must hope for ease	J
Ah let me seek it from the raging seas	J
To raging seas unpitied I'll remove	B
And either cease to live or cease to love	C