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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