Ill-fated rest! Awake, ye fleet-winged Loves, Your mistress! Eôs, rouse the sleeping God, And warn him of the coming of the Day! Alectryôn, wake! In vain: Eôs swept by, Radiant, a blushing finger on her lips. In vain! Close on her flight, from furthest East, The peering Hêlios drove his lambent car, Casting the tell-tale beams on earth and sky, Until Olympos laughed within his light, And all the House of Fire grew roofed with gold; And through its brazen windows Hêlios gazed Upon the sleeping lovers: thence away To Lemnos flashed, across the rearward sea, A messenger, from whom the vengeful smith, Hêphæstos, learned the story of his wrongs; Whence afterward rude scandal spread through Heaven. But they, the lovers, startled from sweet sleep By garish Day, stood timorous and mute, Even as a regal pair, the hart and hind, When first the keynote of the clarion horn Pierces their covert, and the deep-mouthed hound Bays, following on the trail; then, with small pause For amorous partings, sped in diverse ways. She, Aphroditê, clothed in pearly cloud, Dropt from Olympos to the eastern shore; Thence floated, half in shame, half laughter-pleased, Southward across the blue Ægæan sea, That had a thousand little dimpling smiles At her discomfort, and a thousand eyes To shoot irreverent glances. But her conch Passed the Eubœan coasts, and softly on By rugged Dêlos, and the gentler slope Of Naxos, to Icarian waves serene; Thence sailed betwixt fair Rhodos, on the left, And windy Carpathos, until it touched Cyprus; and soon the conscious Goddess found Her bower in the hollow of the isle; And wondering nymphs in their white arms received Their white-armed mistress, bathing her fair limbs In fragrant dews, twining her lucent hair With roses, and with kisses soothing her; Till, glowing in fresh loveliness, she sank To stillness, tended in the sacred isle, And hid herself awhile from all her peers. But angry Arês faced the treacherous Morn, Spurning the palace tower; nor looked behind, Disdainful of himself and secret joys That stript him to the laughter of the Gods. Toward the East he made, and overhung The broad Thermaic gulf; then, shunning well The crags of Lemnos, by Mount Athôs stayed A moment, mute; thence hurtled sheer away, Across the murmuring Northern sea, whose waves Are swollen in billows ruffled with the cuffs Of endless winds; so reached the shores of Thrace, And spleen pursued him in the tangled wilds. Hither at eventide remorseful came Alectryôn; but the indignant God, With harsh revilings, changed him to the Cock, That evermore, remembering his fault, Heralds with warning voice the coming Day. THE TEST. Seven women loved him. When the wrinkled pall Enwrapt him from their unfulfilled desire (Death, pale, triumphant rival, conquering all,)