Endymion
Adelaide Crapsey
‘Let me be young,’ the Latmian shepherd prayed,
‘And let me have on night-time hills long sleep;’
Whom she of Cynthus saw, Heaven’s crowne`d maid,
And gave his youth and dreams her love to keep.
What news comrade upon the mountain top
From the courts of the sun? What news from the skies
When great Orion strides the open night,
Heaven’s Hunter’ hath he told you of Heaven’s
Forests and the quarry of the Gods? They do
Not speare their pray I warrant you. Skillful
and merciless. . Saw you young Cynthia threading her
Silver way among the stars and when she yearned o’er him,
The sleeping shepherd on the hills, caught you
Her breath of love? The winds have passed
You in the night, what have they told you of the
Illimitable? – Hath your soul followed thence and gone
beyond the [two undeciphered words] of their journey
envisaged the Ultimate –
Now doth blue kirtled night relume the stars
Bidding them light my dear love on his way,
And for his coming takes all tender cares
That he shall find the night more sweet than day.