Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/56

Beheld the spouse Leander: he again
To opposite Abydos cross'd the main;
With oaring arms the severing billows drove,
And, still with bliss unsated, breathed of love.
So they their strong impelling love conceal'd.
⁠But long they lived not, soon their bliss was o'er,
And marriage-rite, that roam'd from shore to shore.
For when the winter, with its icy sweep,
In roaring storm upturn'd the whirlpool deep,
Strong blew the chilling hurricanes around,
Lash'd the broad sea, and heaved the gulfs profound.
The sailor dreads the winter ocean's roar,
And runs his bulging bark upon the creeking shore:
But thee, Leander! strong of heart! the main,
With all its horrors, would deter in vain.
⁠'Twas night; when wintry blasts thick-gathering roar,
In darted whirlwind rushing on the shore:
Leander, hopeful of his wonted bride,
Was borne aloft upon the sounding tide.
Wave roll'd on wave: in heaps the waters stood;
Sea clash'd with air; and howling o'er the flood
From every point the warring winds were driven,
And the loud deeps dash'd roaring to the heaven,
Leander struggled with the whirlpool main,
And oft to sea-sprung Venus cried in vain,
And him, the godhead of the watery reign.
None succouring hasten'd to the lover's call,
Nor love could conquer fate, though conquering all.
'Gainst his opposing breast, in rushing heaps,
Burst with swift shock th' accumulated deeps: