Project Gutenberg's The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems by "Q"

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Title: The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems by "Q"

Author: Q
(AKA: Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch)

Release Date: November 19, 2003 [EBook #10133]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE VIGIL OF VENUS

AND OTHER POEMS BY

"Q"

1912

TO MAURICE HEWLETT

HEWLETT! as ship to ship
Let us the ensign dip.
There may be who despise
For dross our merchandise,
Our balladries, our bales
Of woven tales;
Yet, Hewlett, the glad gales
Favonian! And what spray
Our dolphins toss'd in play,
Full in old Triton's beard, on Iris' shimmering veils!

Scant tho' the freight of gold
Commercial in our hold,
Paestum, Eridanus
Perchance have barter'd us
'Bove chrematistic care

CONTENTS

THE VIGIL OF VENUS
PERVIGILIUM VENERIS
THE REGENT--A DRAMA IN ONE ACT
POEMS
EXMOOR VERSES
VASHTI'S SONG
SATURN
DERELICTION
TWO FOLK SONGS
THE SOLDIER
THE MARINE
MARY LESLIE
JENIFER'S LOVE
TWO DUETS
THE STATUES AND THE TEAR
NUPTIAL NIGHT
HESPERUS
CHANT ROYAL OF HIGH VIRTUE
ENVOY
CORONATION HYMN
THREE MEN OF TRURO
ALMA MATER
CHRISTMAS EVE
THE ROOT
TO A FRIEND WHO SENT ME A BOX OF VIOLETS
OF THREE CHILDREN CHOOSING A CHAPLET OF VERSE
EPILOGUE: TO A MOTHER, ON SEEING HER SMILE REPEATED
IN HER DAUGHTER'S EYES

THE VIGIL OF VENUS

The _Pervigilium Veneris_--of unknown authorship, but clearly belonging
to the late literature of the Roman Empire--has survived in two MSS.,
both preserved at Paris in the _Bibliotheque Nationale_.

Of these two MSS. the better written may be assigned (at earliest) to
the close of the seventh century; the other (again at earliest) to the
close of the ninth. Both are corrupt; the work of two illiterate
copyists who--strange to say--were both smatterers enough to betray
their little knowledge by converting _Pervigilium_ into _Per Virgilium_
(_scilicet_, "by Virgil"): thus helping us to follo