[Artfully adorned Aphrodite] (audio only)
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Some say thronging cavalry, some say foot soldiers,
others call a fleet the most beautiful of
sights the dark earth offers, but I say it's what-
ever you love best.
And it's easy to make this understood by
everyone, for she who surpassed all human
kind in beauty, Helen, abandoning her
husband—that best of
men—went sailing off to the shores of Troy and
never spent a thought on her child or loving
parents: when the goddess seduced her wits and
left her to wander,
she forgot them all, she could not remember
anything but longing, and lightly stra2007
O but my delicate lover,
Is she not fair as the moonlight?
Is she not supple and strong
For hurried passion?
1907
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
I.
Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough,
1870