III. Veranni omnibus &c
III.
Veranni omnibus &c [1]
Tenderest friend, so long deplored,
Art thou indeed returning?
To thy friends, thy home restored,
Turn to joy thy mother's mourning?
I shall see thee safe, and hear5
All the dangers thou hast past,
While thy voice, my longing ear
Sweetly satisfies at last.
Herald of approaching joys,
Blessed messenger of bliss!10
Soon his lips, and dearer eyes
I shall press with many a kiss.
Each peculiar grace so charming
I already seem to own,
Fear no more my heart alarming,15
Who such perfect bliss hath known?
Notes
[1] EDITOR'S NOTE: "Tenderest friend, so long deplored" does not appear in Psyche, with Other Poems or Mary (or Collected Poems and Journals) and is undated in Verses. It presents a verse translation of Catullus's 11-line Carmina poem 9 (“Veranius, preferred by me of all my friends, the whole three hundred thousand of them,” Francis Cornish translation):
Verani, omnibus e meis amicis
antistans mihi milibus
trecentis,
venistine domum ad tuos penates
fratresque unanimos anumque matrem?
venisti! o mihi nuntii beati!5
visam te
incolumem audiamque Hiberum
narrantem loca, facta, nationes,
ut mos est tuus, applicansque collum
iucundum os oculosque
saviabor.
o, quantum est hominum beatiorum,10
quid me laetiùs est beatiusve?
