Thou burnest us, Megara, Love must know reserve, Curbing power to keep it Keener for restraint. ERINNA Haughtier than thou, O fair Erinna, I have never met with any maiden. Such a careless scorn as thine for passion Proves a dire affront to Aphrodite. When with soft desire she wounds thy bosom, Thou shalt know love's pain and doubly suffer. Keep the gifts I gave thee, long rejected; Fabrics for thy lap from far Phocea, Babylonian unguents, scented sandals, And the costly mitra for thy tresses; Tripods worked in brass to flank the altar With the ivory figure of the Goddess; Where the sacrificial fumes from sacred Flames shall rise to gladden and appease her, In the hour when at her call thy fervid Breast and mouth to mine shall be relinquished. GONGYLA It was when the sunset Burned with saffron fire, And Apollo's coursers Turned below the hills, That on Mitylene's Marble bridge we met, Gongyla, thou golden Maid of Colophon. Like the breath of morning Or a breeze from sea, Fresh thy beauty smote me, Virile of the north. Startled by thy vision, Transports half divine Flooded veins and bosom, Shook me with desire. Soon the kinder sunglow Of Æolic lands Melted all the futile Snows about thy heart. DAMOPHYLA Cold of heart and strangely Uninclined to passion, Wisdom's vigil leaves thee, Proud Damophyla. Sapphics thou hast written, Verses in my metre, With a skill surpassing In the melic art. Love's superb enchantment Thou art fain to banish, Like the virgin Huntress Long by thee adored. Molded by thy tunic, Every arching contour Of her chaste and noble Form I dream to see; Even view her stepping From the leafy covert Down the dawn-white valley, Stately as a stag. Long I sued but found thee Deaf to all entreaty, Till one summer twilight Listless in the heat; Soothed by slumber's languor, And my low monodic Voice that hymned a paean In the praise of love; Loth to yield yet vanquished, As I knelt beside thee, All thy long resistance To my kiss succumbed. ANAGORA Anagora, fairest Spoil of fateful battle, Babylonian temples Knew thy luring song. Wrested from barbaric Captors for thy beauty, Thou wert made a priestess At Mylitta's shrine. Once these flexile fingers Clasped in mine so closely, Neath the temple's arches Thrummed the tabor soft. Thou hast taught me secrets Of the cryptic chambers, How the zonahs worship In the burning East;