| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| From “Myrtis” |
| | | Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
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| FRIENDS, whom she look’d at blandly from her couch | |
| And her white wrist above it, gem-bedew’d, | |
| Were arguing with Pentheusa: she had heard | |
| Report of Creon’s death, whom years before | |
| She listen’d to, well-pleas’d; and sighs arose; | 5 |
| For sighs full often fondle with reproofs | |
| And will be fondled by them. When I came | |
| After the rest to visit her, she said, | |
| “Myrtis! how kind! Who better knows than thou | |
| The pangs of love? and my first love was he!” | 10 |
| Tell me (if ever, Eros! are reveal’d | |
| Thy secrets to the earth) have they been true | |
| To any love who speak about the first? | |
| What! shall these holier lights, like twinkling stars | |
| In the few hours assign’d them, change their place, | 15 |
| And, when comes ampler splendor, disappear? | |
| Idler I am, and pardon, not reply, | |
| Implore from thee, thus question’d; well I know | |
| Thou strikest, like Olympian Jove, but once. | |
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