AMBERGRIS 
131 
 
 
 
FROM ORPHEUS 
 
The Regaining of Eurydice 
 
The magical task and the labour is ended ; 
The toils are unwoven, the battle is won ; 
My lover comes back to my arms, to the splendid 
Abyss of the air and abode of the sun. 
The sword be assuaged, and the bow be unbended ! 
The labour is past, and the victory won. 
 
The arrows of song through Hell cease to hurtle. 
Away to the passionate gardens of Greece, 
Where the thrush is awake, and the voice of the turtle 
Is soft in the amorous places of peace, 
And the tamarisk groves and the olive and myrtle 
Stir ever with love and content and release. 
 
O bountiful bowers and O beautiful gardens ! 
O isles in the azure Ionian deep ! 
Ere ripens the sun, ere the spring-wind hardens 
Your fruits once again ye shall have me to keep. 
The sleep-god laments, and the love-goddess pardons, 
When love at the last sinks unweary to sleep. 
 
The green-hearted hours shall burst into flowers. 
The winds shall waft roses from uttermost Ind. 
Our nuptial dowers shall be birds in our bowers, 
Our couches the delicate heaps of the wind, 
Where the lily-bloom showers all its light, and the powers 
Of earth in our twinning are wedded and twinned.