Venus and Adonis (Modern)
Peer Reviewed
¶Sometime he scuds far off, and there he stares.
¶Anon he starts at stirring of a feather.
¶To bid the wind a base he now prepares,
¶And where he run or fly they know not whether;
305_For through his mane and tail the high wind sings,
¶_Fanning the hairs, who wave like feathered wings.
¶He looks upon his love and neighs unto her;
¶She answers him as if she knew his mind.
¶Being proud, as females are, to see him woo her,
310She puts on outward strangeness, seems unkind,
¶_Spurns at his love, and scorns the heat he feels,
¶_Beating his kind embracements with her heels.
¶Then, like a melancholy malcontent,
¶He vails his tail that, like a falling plume,
315Cool shadow to his melting buttock lent.
¶He stamps and bites the poor flies in his fume.
¶_His love perceiving how he was enraged,
¶_Grew kinder, and his fury was assuaged.
