FLORA RESTORED
Posted by Admin on 25 May 2006, 12:00 am
Your temple, we are told, was near
the Circus Maximus, where Roman tongues
aspersed your virtue – classed you with
the courtesan, Laurentia.
’Twas there in olden times, we read,
your devotees, from April’s end till May,
made sport, indecorous and wild.
Divinity of sapful Spring,
once long to Solent gales exposed –
now Tatius, who vowed your shrine
and fathered Numa’s bride, is dust,
while Numa, second king of Rome,
in unrecorded soil lies dead,
abjure your orgiastic rite;
preserve each flower, bless each tree;
and let no pagan revelry
profane your new arboreal site!
N.B.
The statue of Flora, which for many years stood on Prince’s Green, has been restored and placed in an alcove in Northwood Park.
From The Hounds of Cridmore and Other Isle of Wight Poems, a book of Mr Hudson’s poetry with many illustrations by Heather Cobb.
T. C. Hudson
© T. C. Hudson.
This work may not be reproduced without prior permission of the author.
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