V.  FRAGMENTS FROM SAPPHO

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XCV

Evening, thou that bringest all that bright morning scattered; thou bringest the sheep, the goat, the child back to her mother.

Thus imitated by Byron: —

O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things —
    Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer,
To the young bird the parent’s brooding wings,
    The welcome stall to the o’erlaboured steer;
Whate’er of peace about our hearthstone clings,
    Whate’er our household gods protect of dear,
Are gathered round us by thy look of rest;
Thou bring’st the child too to its mother’s breast.

Don Juan, iii. 107.

And by Tennyson: —

The ancient poetess singeth, that Hesperus all
       things bringeth,
Smoothing the wearied mind: bring me my
       love, Rosalind.
Thou comest morning or even; she cometh
       not morning or evening,
False-eyed Hesper, unkind, where is my sweet
       Rosalind?

Leonine Elegiacs, 1830-1884.

155

Hesperus brings all things back
Which the daylight made us lack,
Brings the sheep and goats to rest,
Brings the baby to the breast.

EDWIN ARNOLD, 1869.

Evening, all things thou bringest
    Which dawn spread apart from each other;
The lamb and the kid thou bringest,
    Thou bringest the boy to his mother.

J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

Hesper, whom the poet call’d the Bringer
    home of all good things.

TENNYSON,      
Lockley Hall Sixty Years After, 1886.