Come, dearest - Paul the Silentiary, 575-580 AD

Idyll - William Adolphe Bouguereau, 1851

Come, dearest, cast these silly veils away 

That half thy glory hide, 

And show they naked body to the day, 

And boldly be my bride

Let nothing be between us; even this

Thin tissue thou hast on

Is thicker than the wall Semiramis

Built around Babylon

Then breast to breast and lip to lip we'll lie, 

And all I have not sung

We'll whisper to ourselves, for you and I

Abhor a babbling tongue...