XXVI.
(Fragment 85.)
A daughter have I: she is fair, is fair!
Graceful and tall does my darling stand
As a sunflower gleaming with golden hair!
O, all the treasures of Morning-land
Were but as dust in the balance laid,
Beside her, my Cleïs, my little maid!
XXVII.
An Epithalamium.
(Fragments 91, 92, 99, 106, 104, 103, 100, 105, 101, 102, 96, 109, 93, 94, 97, 95, 133 combined.)
Raise high the beams of the raftered hall,
(Sing the Hymen-refrain!)
Ye builders, of the bridal-dwelling!
(Sing the Hymen-refrain!)
Lo, the bridegroom comes, as the War-god tall—[1]
(Sing the Hymen-refrain!)
Now nay—yet our tallest in stature excelling;
(Sing the Hymen-refrain!)
For stately he towers above all the throng
As the Lesbian singer towers among
All alien poets, a prince of song.
- ↑ She checks herself; for extravagant praise brought ill-luck to its subject.
