alarms

'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms,

And all Olympus rings with loud alarms:

Jove's thunder roars, heaven trembles all around,

and her eyes are full and wet with love, and when she holds out her arms,

and the velvet counterpane half slips from her, and alarms

her trembling modesty, how eagerly he will leap to cover her, and blot himself

With Muse prepared,[129] I meant to sing of arms,

Choosing a subject fit for fierce alarms:

Both verses were alike till Love (men say)

Nor of thee, Macer, that resound'st forth arms,

Is golden love hid in Mars' mid alarms.

There Paris is, and Helen's crimes record,

The present shows her heedless eyes

A future dim with vague alarms.

She sees, and yet she scarcely sees,

With still tears showering and averted face,

Inexplicably filled with faint alarms:

And oft from mine own spirit's hurtling harms

Over his head.

He laughs and stretches and flouts alarms

Of flood or fire.

And their lure that never dies.

Banish all your fond alarms,

For I know the foiling charms