{"collection":"Classics","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cla/pos/pos47.htm","path":"cla/pos/pos47.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cla/pos/pos47.htm","text":"The Poems of Sappho, by John Myers O'Hara, [1910]\nALC\u00c6US\nViolet-weaving Sappho, pure and lovely,\n Softly-smiling Sappho, I would utter\n Something that my secret hope has cherished,\n Did no painful sense of shame deter me.\nSAPPHO\nHad the impulse of thy heart been honest,\n It had urged no evil supplication;\n Shame had not abashed thy eyes before me,\n And thy words had done thee no dishonor.\nSoftly-smiling Sappho, longing bids me\n Tell thee all that in my heart lies hidden.\nHave no fear, Alc\u00e6us, to offend me!\n Thy emotion stirs my heart to pity.\nI desire thee, violet-weaving Sappho!\n Love thee madly, softly-smiling Sappho!\nHush, Alc\u00e6us! thou must choose a younger\n Comrade for thy couch, for I would never\n Join thy years to mine\u2014the Gods forbid it\u2014\n Youth and ardent fire to age and ashes.","title":"The Poems of Sappho: Erotika: Dithyrambs: Am\u0153beum: Alc\u00e6us and Sappho","type":"page"}