Priapeia

Priaepia

by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers

  1. 'Why be my parts obscene displayed without cover?' thou askest:
  2. Ask I wherefore no God careth his sign to conceal?
  3. Wieldeth the Lord of the World his thunderbolt ever unhidden,
  4. Nor is trident a-sheath given to the Watery God:
  5. Mars never veileth that blade whose might is his prevalent power,
  6. Nor in her tepid lap Pallas concealeth the spear:
  7. Say me, is Phoebus ashamed his gold-tipt arrows to carry?
  8. Or is her quiver wont Dian in secret to bear?
  9. Say, doth Alcides hide his war-club doughtily knotted?
  10. Or hath the God with the wings rod hidden under his robe?
  11. When did Bacchus endue with dress his willowy Thyrsus?
  12. Who ever spied thee, Love! wilfully hiding thy torch?