Classic Poem

I

" I PRAY thee, Psyche! do not bring
That fatal lamp beside the bed
Of heavenly Eros slumbering;
Enjoy thy happiness ere fled.
He is thy star of life, thine own;
Veiled from the common light of day,
Thou meet'st him in his haunt alone,
And liv'st in his immortal ray.

II

" Oh, let not doubt that love efface,
Nor dim its mirror with a stain.
The secret of his life to trace
Is idle, Psyche, and as vain;
Remember, thou art linked with dust
Of earth, howe'er thy form divine;
Then darken not with earth's distrust
A god whose very soul is thine!

III

" The light thou bear'st with oil is fed
That lives not in his presence; even
The wings that waft thee to his bed
Would fail thee in their flight to heaven:
For thou art mortal, and allied
To death, though of ethereal flame;
That form in all its beauty's pride
Must turn to dust from whence it came!

IV

" Even now the lamp thou burnest dims,
As if it mourned for her who bore;
If it but light his heavenly limbs,
He wakens, but he loves no more.
He sees thee as thou art, a light
Inferior, veiled in shadows dim,
No longer with the halo bright
Of glory thou hadst drawn from Him.

V

" He cannot change his heaven of birth,
Or raise thee to his own, that art
Proving even now thy kin to earth,
In doubt and the distrustful heart;
In vain those eyes their love will shed,
That voice pour forth its melting tone;
The fires that lit the shrine are dead
The vow unheard, the music flown."