| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (18331908). A Victorian Anthology, 18371895. 1895. |
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| Formosae Puellae |
| | | Herbert P. Horne (b. 1864) |
| | | | | | Tot Tibi Tamque Dabit Formosas Roma Puellas; |
| Haec Habet, Ut Dicas, Quidquid in Orbe Fuit. |
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| OH! had you eyes, but eyes that move | |
| Within the light and realm of love, | |
| Then would you, on the sudden, meet | |
| A Helen walking down the street. | |
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| Here in this London mid the stir, | 5 |
| The traffic, and the burdened air, | |
| Oh! could your eyes divine their home, | |
| Then this were Greece, or that were Rome. | |
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| The state of Dian is not gone, | |
| The dawn she fled is yet the dawn; | 10 |
| Her crystal flesh the years renew | |
| Despite her bodice, skirt, and shoe. | |
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| Nor is she only to be seen | |
| With Junos height, and Pallas sheen; | |
| The knit, all-wondrously wrought, form | 15 |
| Of Cytherea, soft and warm, | |
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| Yet, like her jewelled Hesperus, | |
| Puts forth its light, and shines on us; | |
| Wheneer she sees, and would control, | |
| Love, at the windows of the soul. | 20 |
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