The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-11-01
VIRGINIA. NOVEMBER /. 1888.
CLEOPATRA's PROTEST.
EDWARD LIVINGSTON KErns.

/
/ Come nearer. my spotted leopard, and cool VIII
your tongue my hand ~, .
/ 7 am foint with n fitful fever, and filled with
fancy grand;
| Lie close to my side, and LEND me your passion
that poison taints,
While ponder the perjured picture the worle
| ofyour mistress paints;
The features and life it has painted, and chisel-
| ed and moulded and sung,
| OF Egypt's Cleopatra in every land and
tongue;
On canvass crystal china, in bronze and brass
and gold,
In malachite and marble, on coins and medals
| old;
| In mosaic and murrhine in coral, copper clay
| On ivory and in ebon, in Syrene's grante gray
| In opal, ophite, onyx, in sapphire, chrysoilte;
In topaz, turquoise, Jasper, inalabaster Whlte JIG
lin verse and prose and ballad, in history mani
| foldsA
The face and life OF Egypt's queen are drawn
and carved and told.
In this galaxy of artists, this gallery ofarts5s
! Where chiseI, brush and pen have Wed 10 dc
| & $ their perjured part,
l see no shade shadow, no sign nor sem
blance sec
| Other who stood at Actium with Roman Anto-
| nv!
Ifai to find the features, the force or spirit bold
Other who sailed the Cydnus in her galley
wrought in gold;
In the character they give me I trace no sign
nor mood
Of her, who chose destruction to a life of servi-
tude as
Who barred her bosom proudly ana persisted like
a queen,
Preferring death to Cesar, and the grave to Ro-
man spleen!
But see the spiteful venom that guided steel
and hand,
That furnished as it tinted, and poisones as 1t
planned.
1 see the jealous envy that shaped each curve
KS and turn
OF chisel, brush and pencil; but naught of truth
discern
And Isee what they have made me. | cannot
help butsee,
For what the senseless stone omits is found in
history.
The seal they set upon me of sumptuous sin and
shame.
They stole from frail Aspasias brow and Gre
clan Phrynes name.
l see the perjured picture! see the wanton
vile
They show for Cleopaera-'the Serpent of the
Nile ~
And the eager world in earnest the lying trick
respects.
And down through coming ages the truthfci
type rejects;
But l scorn to see the semblance in the picture
that they draw
OF her who held Rome captive and whose wish
was Egypt's law
l would bid them go remember that she whom
they revile
Spurned the love of laureled Caesar, when he
sought her by the Nile,
And offered fame and station, and the sover-
eighty of Rome,
If she would yield the conquest, and say she
was his own;
That she sent him back, with others, in their
regal robes unnamed,
Who had come as hopeful suitors for Cleopatra's
hand,
And bid them lay their treasures at the feet of
more free
Than the sprouse of Rome's Triumvir, the god
like Antony!
would tell them that the pious, prude Octavia,
whom they raise
Upon the highest pinnacle Of purity and praise,
Is not worthy of the worship they offer at her
shrine,
For she was never Antony's; he always had
been mine!
He took her from her regal home to carry out
his part,
But never to his bosom, and never to his heart,
And all, all, all of Antony this naughty dame
can claim,
Is the sacrifice he offered when he gave to her
his name
He has sworn to me by Eros, that their hards
have never met,
And that his star in Egypt rose when hers in
No, 4
would tell them that Octayia knew his spirit
and his heart,
His life, his soul, his destiny, his mind, his every
Was moored upon the Nilus, together with mine
own,
Before he ever saw her-by C@sars wish alone
And she knew the gods of Egypt had smiled Sc
renely down
On the union of Romes consul with Egypt's
starry CROWN n
l would tell them she they blemished with the
brand of sin and shame
Would have scorned to call him husband who
gave alone his name!
And had that naughty Roman dame the spirit
of a dove,
Shed have sent him back to Egypt, to her who
owned his love.
am weary; leave me, leopard you cannot
change your skin,
Nor l, the naughty spirit 1 showed to all, save
him.
And thank the gods of Egypt for their mercy,
which shown
In giving me Mark Antony, for all, all, all my
own!
And thank the god of waters for yielding me
the tide,
That flooded old Niles bosom, when we rode