Carm. 70
dicebas quondam, etc.
TO LESBIA.
Thou told’st me, in our days of love,
That I had all that heart of thine;
That, even to share the couch of Jove,
Thou wouldst not, Lesbia, part from mine.
How purely wert thou worshipt then!
Not with the vague and vulgar fires
Which Beauty wakes in soulless men,—
But loved, as children by their sires.
That flattering dream, alas, is o’er;—
I know thee now—and tho’ these eyes
Doat on thee wildly as before,
Yet, even in doating, I despise.
Yes, sorceress—mad as it may seem—
With all thy craft, such spells adorn thee,
That passion even outlives esteem.
And I at once adore—and scorn thee.