Poem by Thomas Moore

From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 35

Cupid once upon a bed
Of roses laid his weary head;
Luckless urchin not to see
Within the leaves a slumbering bee;
The bee awaked — with anger wild
The bee awaked, and stung the child.
Loud and piteous are his cries;
To Venus quick he runs, he flies;
„O mother — I am wounded through —
I die with pain — in sooth I do!
Stung by some little angry thing,
Some serpent on a tiny wing —
A bee it was — for once I know,
I heard a rustic call it so.”
Thus he spoke, and she the while
Heard him with a soothing smile;
Then said, „My infant, if so much
Thou feel the little wild-bee’s touch,
How must the heart, ah, Cupid! be,
The hapless heart that’s stung by thee?”

1. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 54
2. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 46
3. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 56
4. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 52
5. From “Irish Melodies”. 113. Alone in Crowds to Wander On

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