The Figure of Venus in 'Spring'

    Image: Sandro Botticelli, La Primavera (ca. 1482). Tempera ‘grassa’ on poplar panel. 202 x 314 cm. © Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 1890. Room 10-14 http://www.uffizi.org/artworks/la-primavera-allegory-of-spring-by-sandro-botticelli/, 15 September 2015.

    Sandro Botticelli

    The Accademia of Florence
     

    I.

    A SIMPLE lady full of heavy thought :
    Behind her neck the myrtle-bowers lie cold ;
    Her robe is white, her carmine mantle rolled
    And lifted on her arm that beareth nought :
    A flame-tipped arrow in its arc is brought
    Above by Eros ; ornaments of gold
    Are crossed chainwise about her chest to hold
    The unfilled breasts ; her right hand as she sought
    To bless is lifted and then stays at pause
    As fearful to cast sorrow for delight
    On her girl-votaries. Must her coming cause
    Their stately freedom quite to disappear ?
    Brings Love in truth a bitterness to blight
    The yet unstricken gladness of the year ?

    II.

    Or is it Destiny that doth compel
    Her hand to stay its blessing ? On her right
    Three virgins, flowerless, slow of step, unite
    In dance, as they were guided by the spell
    Of some Choragus imperceptible :
    Beside them Hermes lifts his wand to smite
    An orange from the bough ; they keep in sight
    The severing of the golden fruit for hell. 
    What boots it therefore that so light of breath
    Comes Flora, from her lapfull tossing flowers,
    Come Zephyrus and fleeing nymph, if these
    Are travelling wanton toward the infernal powers ;
    If the stern Moirai move beneath the trees
    With eyes fixed on the harbinger of death ?

    Sandro Botticelli

    The Accademia of Florence
     

    I.

    A SIMPLE lady full of heavy thought :
    Behind her neck the myrtle-bowers lie cold ;
    Her robe is white, her carmine mantle rolled
    And lifted on her arm that beareth nought :
    A flame-tipped arrow in its arc is brought
    Above by Eros ; ornaments of gold
    Are crossed chainwise about her chest to hold
    The unfilled breasts ; her right hand as she sought
    To bless is lifted and then stays at pause
    As fearful to cast sorrow for delight
    On her girl-votaries. Must her coming cause
    Their stately freedom quite to disappear ?
    Brings Love in truth a bitterness to blight
    The yet unstricken gladness of the year ?

    II.

    Or is it Destiny that doth compel
    Her hand to stay its blessing ? On her right
    Three virgins, flowerless, slow of step, unite
    In dance, as they were guided by the spell
    Of some Choragus imperceptible :
    Beside them Hermes lifts his wand to smite
    An orange from the bough ; they keep in sight
    The severing of the golden fruit for hell. 
    What boots it therefore that so light of breath
    Comes Flora, from her lapfull tossing flowers,
    Come Zephyrus and fleeing nymph, if these
    Are travelling wanton toward the infernal powers ;
    If the stern Moirai move beneath the trees
    With eyes fixed on the harbinger of death ?