Collected Works (Vol. III)

202 ORPHEUS Alas ! my soul is filled with fear, Is the hard conquest here? Where is Eurydice? The god hath faded Back to invisible abodes And on these rocky roads Comes no deep perfume of her hair light- braided. Alas! I listen ! and no breath Assures the walls of death That life remembers, that their hate is quelled. My ears, my scent avail. me nought; My slavish eyes are bought By the command wherewith I am compelled, Alas ! my heart sinks momently. Fear steals and misery. From faith in faith of Hell my thoughts dis- sever. Yet, O my heart! abide, endure! Seek not by sight to assure, Or she is lost to thee and lost for ever ! Now breathes the night-air o’er the deep, And limb-dissolving sleep Laps my own country, and the maiden moon Gleams silver barley from the sea, And binds it royally Into a sheaf that waves to the wind’s tune. The rocky portals rise above. Here I may clasp my love, Here Hermes shall deliver. Ah! how shook Yon cliff at the wind’s ardent kiss ! This is the hour of bliss— Thesea! Thesea! Eurydice! Look, Look! Ai! but like wind-whirled flowers of frost The flying form is lost ! Cancelled and empty of Eurydice The black paths where she trod ! Ai! Ai! My God! My God! Apollo, why hast thou forsaken me? EXPLICIT LIBER TERTIUS