ACTUS QUARTUS 19
MEDEA.
Thine therefore should be sweeter.
ORPHEUS.
The Gods grant it!
Lift up this love of peace and bliss,
The starry soul of wine,
Destruction’s formidable kiss,
The lamp of the divine:
This shadow of a nobler name
Whose life is strife, whose soul is fame !
I rather will exalt the soul
Of man to loftier height,
And kindle at a livelier coal
The subtler soul of Light.
From these soft splendours of a dream
T turn, and seek the Self supreme.
This world is shadow-shapen of
The bitterness of pain,
Vain are the little lamps of love!
The light of life is vain!
Life, death, joy, sorrow, age and youth
Are phantoms of a further truth.
Beyond the splendour of the world,
False glittering of the gold,
A Serpent is in slumber curled
In wisdom’s sacred cold.