Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/149

Near the sea's hue, for thence her goddess came:
On it a scarf she wore of wondrous frame;
In midst whereof she'd wrought a virgin's face,
From whose each cheek a fiery blush did chase
Two crimson flames, that did two ways extend,
Spreading the ample scarf to either end,
Which figur'd the division of her mind,
Whiles yet she rested bashfully inclin'd,
And stood not resolute to wed Leander;
This serv'd her white neck for a purple sphere,
And cast itself at full breadth down her back.
There since the first breath that begun the wrack
Of her free quiet from Leander's lips,
She wrought a sea in one flame full of ships:
But that one ship where all her wealth did pass,
Like simple merchants' goods, Leander was:
For in that sea she naked figur'd him;
Her diving needle taught him how to swim,
And to each thread did such resemblance give,
For joy to be so like him it did live.
Things senseless live by art, and rational die
By rude contempt of art and industry.
Scarce could she work but in her strength of thought,
She fear'd she prick'd Leander as she wrought: