From the Groom of a Knight in Love - Aristaenetus

Epistle VIII
Echepolus to Melesippus

O! The grace, the art to rein
Fiery courfers round the plain!
See — yon valiant hero ride,
Skill'd with either hand to guide:
See how beautiful, and ftrong!
See how fwift he glides along!
'Sure fell Cupid's arrowy ftorm
Ne'er affail'd that blooming form.
No— 'tis fure Adonis fair,
All the nymph's peculiar care.'
Speaking thus, the cavalier
Chanc'd my words to overhear.—
'Hufh,' faid he, 'thy words are vain:
Love alone can guide the rein.
Love impels thro' me the fteed.
Nerves my arm, and fires my fpeed:
Quick as light'ning tho' we run.
Still dread Cupid urges on.
Mount yon car, begin thy ftrain:
Songs bed fuit the lover's pain.'
I fubmitted and from him
Took at once the fudden theme.
'Little reck'd I, haplefs lord,
Cupid's fhaft thy heart had gor'd:
If fo fair a form as thine
Can with hopelefs paffion pine.
By the Cyprian queen I fwear,
All the Loves fell tyrants are.
Yet be't thine to brave the fmart,
Boldly bear the tingling dart:
Well might they difturb your reft,
Who could pierce their mother's breaft.'

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Aristaenetus (6th Century A.D.) Greece
Translated by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Nathaniel Brassey Halhed
Source: The Love Epistles of Aristaenetus: Translated From the Greek Into English Metre by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, J. Wilkie, 1771