Paraphrase on Beauty

To beauty's standard all repair, E'en gods themselves pay tribute there; Pleasing Syren, all delighting; Pow'r attractive, gods inviting; More sweet than breeze from fragrant bow'r, When water'd by a silver shower: Narcissus fair, as poets say, For his shadow pin'd away; Old Vulcan too, its pow'r could know, Who for Venus, turn'd a beau. Beauty caus'd a Trojan war, When lovely Paris, Helen saw: Great Jupiter his pride o'ercame, And crept an ant, to wed his dame; Adonis does his favors share, By being more than passing fair. How many heroes, fought and bled, To sacrifice, by beauty led; And warlike kings, both young and old, Were slaves to slaves, by beauty sold; Lost Anthony, forsook his bride, For Cleopatra, madly sigh'd. Chaste Dian, and her virgin train, With dazzling beauty fill the plain; Juno, the gaudy peacock's show, By doves, we am'rous Venus know; Andromeda in beauty's pride, With Juga and the Nereides vied: To be devour'd, the maid they threw, And Perseus, the monster slew; By Polypheme, with envy fir'd, Happy Acis, crush'd, expir'd: For Thais, Alexander sighs, And drinks his nectar from her eyes. Hail beauty's goddess, soft and fair, Come brace your doves in yielding air; Bring harmless pleasures from afar, And beauty be their leading star.