Venus Multiformis.
Three men on a broken deck-plank,With the reef and its roar ahead,
Floated on, through a fair June morning,
To a doom that was sure and dread.
Said one, “My years have been wasted
On a woman's terrible charms;
But oh! to see death draw near me,
And to die outside of her arms!”
Said another, “Through surge and through tempest
My eyes are fixed on her face;
I forget the tumult of ocean
In the joy of her last embrace.”
Said the third, “I can die unflinching
Wherever my fortune lies;
But oh! her endless bereavement,
And the rivers of tears from her eyes!”
