David Austin - the Sibyl - Astarte's Birth

David Austin THE SIBYL ASTARTE’S BIRTH Aphrodite-wed on summer’s noon I lay me long reflecting And glad my eye the sky as hillcrest partner shares this view; Fond Cytherea seems at nature with a point In thought-fixed time; All else, save lady with her doting nymphs, is show’ring green about, And I, intruder at her foaming birth, rebuke the modern scandal. Nothing lurid, naught impure, my naked lady stands at bath, While soon doves, blithely perch’d, (wet wings do mark a chilling breeze) Most amorous white birds praise my passion’s woozy lightness ‘neath the trees.