Love! Love? aaaaahhhhh Love..."Love was pleased And on the right propitious sneezed"

Catullus: 45th Poem

The Roman name, Septimius, coupled with the Greek, Acme, suggests possibly a real love affair as the basis, but the poem may be wholly imaginative. It is a little tableau: the lovers protest their undying devotion as they clasp each other in fond embrace, while Cupid flits about in the background, an amused and ironic eavesdropper.

Septimius cried, as on his breast
His darling Acme he caressed,
"My Acme, if I love not thee
To madness, ay, distractedly,
And with a love that well I know
With time shall fonder, wilder grow,
In Libya may I then, my sweet,
Or India's burning deserts meet
The green-eyed lion's hungry glare,
And none be by to help me there!"

As thus he whispered, Love was pleased
And on the right propitious sneezed.

Then bending gently back her head,
And with that mouth, so rosy-red,
Impressing on his eyes a kiss,
His eyes, that drunken were with bliss,
"Oh, Septimillus, life!" cried she,
"So love our only master be,
As burns in me, thine Acme true,
A fire that thrills my marrow through,
Intenser, mightier, more divine,
Than any thou canst feel in thine!"

As thus she whispered, Love was pleased
And on the right propitious sneezed.

Now hallowed by such omens fair, Each dotes on each, that happy pair.
He, sick with love, rates Acme's smiles
Above the East or Britain's isles;
Whilst Acme, to Septimius true,
For him, him only, doth renew
Love's first delights, and to her boy
Unfolds fresh treasuries of joy.

Were ever souls so lapped in bliss!

Was ever love so blest as this!