Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
…— JASON. Indeed these toils and dangerous pursuits, Labours and journeys, go to make one mad. Well were it to beguile our weariness With song. MEDEA. And here is the sole king of song. ORPHEUS. My song breaks baffled on the rocks of time If thy bewitching beauty be the theme. MEDEA. Sing me thy song, sweet poet, of the sea
…. JASON. I hear a sound like water whispering. MEDEA. I hear a harsh noise like some ancient crone Muttering curses. JASON. Now I hear a song. ’Tis like some shape of sleep that moans for joy, Some bridal sob of love! MEDEA. O Son of God! My poet, swiftly leap the live lyre forth! Else we are all enchanted—yet to me This song is nowise lovely. But in him I note the live look of the eyes leap up, And all his love for me forgotten straight At the mere echo of that tune. ORPHEUS. Hark, friends! Aea’s tune—my Colchian harbour-song! I hear the water…
…COND MESSENGER. The hero is at hand. CHORUS. O happy of mortals! O fronter of fear, The impassible portals! Ye heavens, give ear! 15 Our song shall be rolled in the praise of the gold, and its glory be told where the heavenly fold rejoices to hold the stars in its sphere. O hero Iolchian! Warrior king! From the kingdom Colchian The Fleece dost bring! Our song shall be sung and its melody flung where the Lyre and the Tongue are fervid and young, all islands among where the Sirens sing.
4 ARGONAUTAE The song of the axe and the wedge! The clang of the hammer and chain! Keen whistle of chisel and edge! Smooth swish of the sliding plane! Hail to the honour of toil! Hail! to the ship flown free! Hail! to the golden spoil, And the glamour of all the sea! HERACLES. A good stout song, friend Argus, matching well The mighty blows thou strikest: yet methinks One blow should serve to drive yon nail well home Where thou with tenfold stroke THESEUS. Good Heracles! Not all men owe thy strength—— ARGUS. Nay, let him try! Take my toy hammer!…
…N. Ah, Zeus! ORPHEUS. The hearts of Greeks with sharper flames Burn than with one fire of all fire, We have the Races and the Games, The song, the chisel, and the lyre; We have the altar, we the shrine, And ours the joy of love and wine. Why take one pleasure, put aside The myriad bliss of life diverse? Unchanging joy will soon divide Into the likeness of a curse. Have we no maidens, slender, strong, Daughters of tender-throated song? I swear by Aphrodite’s eyes Our Grecian maids are fairer far! What love as sweet as theirs is lies
ACTUS QUARTUS That song of swimming when thy love lost sense Before the passion of the Infinite. JASON. The more so as my master warns me oft Of late how near that island is, where dwell The alluring daughters of Melpomene. ORPHEUS. Light shed from seaward over breakers bending Kiss-wise to the emerald hollows: light divine Whereof the sun is God, the sea his shrine; Light in vibrations rhythmic; light unending, Light sideways from the girdling crags extending Unto this lone and languid head of mine; Light, that fulfils creation as with wine, F…
…rus of Heroes. Chorus of Shipbuilders. Scene: An open place near Lolchus. CHORUS OF SHIPBUILDERS. The sound of the hammer and steel! The song of the level and line! The whirr of the whistling wheel! The ring of the axe on the pine! The joy of the ended labour, As the good ship plunges free By sound of pipe and tabor To front the sparkling sea! The mystery-woven spell! The voyage of golden gain! The free full sails that swell On the swell of the splendid main!
… know not what hath passed: I seem asleep Still, with the dream yet racing in my brain, THESEUS. There was a sweetness: whether sight or song I know not. JASON. But my veins grew strong and swollen, And madness came upon me. MEDEA. You are here, Let that suffice. Remember not! ORPHEUS. ; But now I see the haze lift on the water-way, And hidden headlands loom again. JASON. I know The pleasant portals. CHORUS. Here is home at last. ORPHEUS. The sunset comes: the mist is lifted now To let the last kiss of the daylight fall Once ere night whisper “…
…s is the desperate hour. JASON. I have no strength. MEDEA. Beware the third, the awful ecstasy! ORPHEUS. A higher spell controls a lower song. Listen, they sing! JASON. Joy! Joy! they sing, they sing! LEUCOSIA. O lover, I am lonely here! O lover, I am weeping! Each pearl of ocean is a tear Let fall while love was sleeping. A tear is made of fire and dew And saddened with a smile; The sun’s laugh in the curving blue Lasts but a little while.
…A. But love thou me! My husband is distraught. ORPHEUS. Madness is on him for thy punishment. MEDEA. Sing, therefore! ORPHEUS. This last song of theirs was sweet.
…, O sea of sleep! Young moon! Dream on above in maiden swoon! None daring to invoke the gales To shake our sea, and swell our sails. Not song, but silence, were a boon— Save for this tune. Round capes grown darker as night falls, We see at last the splendid walls That ridge the bay; the town lies there Lighted (the temple’s hour for prayer) At grave harmonious intervals. The grand voice of some seaman calls, Just as the picture fades, aware How it was fair. JASON. A thousand victories bring us to the shore Whence we set out: look forth! The peo…
… ship Glides between walls of purple. MEDEA. The green land Cools the tired eyes. CHORUS. The rocks stand sentinel. MEDEA. Let still the song that saved us gladden us. Lift up thy lyre, sweet Orpheus, on the sea. ORPHEUS. Over a sea like stainéd glass At sunset like a chrysopras:— Our smooth-oared vessel over-rides Crimson and green and purple tides. Between the rocky isles we pass, And greener islets gay with grass; Between the over-arching sides Our pinnace glides. Just by the Maenad-haunted hill Songs rise into the air, and thrill, Like clus…
…alleys home? Or on Daedalian oarage fare Forth in the interlunar air? Imageless mirror-life! to be Sole between moon and sea. CHORUS. No song can lure us while he sings so well. JASON. But look! I see entrancing woman-forms That beckon—fairy-like and not of earth. So, fitter than the bed of this my queen To rest heroic limbs! MEDEA. The wretched one! Thou knowest that their kiss is death!
…hou only tread the path none else hath trode! Come, lover, in my breast all blooms above, Here is thy love! MEDEA. My poet, now! The one song in the world! ORPHEUS. Above us on the mast is spread The splendour of the fleece! Before us, Argive maidens tread The glowing isles of Greece! Behind us, fear and toil are dead: Below, the breakers cease! The Holy Light is on my head— My very name is Peace! The water’s music moves; and swings The sea’s eternal breast. The wind above us whistles, rings, And wafts us to the West.
…. Who sails through all that solemn space Out to the twilight’s secret place, The sleepy waters move below His ship’s imaginary flow. No song, no lute, so lowly chaunts In woods where still Arisbe haunts, Wrapping the wanderer with her tresses Into untold caresses. For none of all the sons of men That hath known Artemis, again Turns to the warmer earth, nor vows His secrets to another spouse. The moon resolves her beauty in The sea’s deep kisses salt and keen;
…il-weary mind As brave Athenae: no renown Stands so divine in war and peace As the illustrious name of Greece. This island of the subtle song Shall vanish as the shaken spray Tossed by the billow far and strong On marble coasts: we will not stay!
…ON. Arise, All heroes, circling round the sacred stone In beautiful order and procession grave, While our chief priest, our mightiest in song, The dowered of Phoebus, great Oeager’s heir, Invokes that glory on the sacrifice That kindles all its slumber into life And vivid flame descending on the wheel And chariot of lightning, licking up The water of the loud-resounding sea Lustral, poured seven times upon the earth And in one flash consuming wood and stone And the sweet savour of the sacrifice. ORPHEUS. But when the flame hath darted from the …
…s And hills and springs are void of my Apollo— The Sea herself my tune and my desire! The Sun himself my lover and my lyre! CHORUS. This song is sweeter than the honeycomb. MEDEA. Nearly as sweet as good friends quarrelling. JASON. Look, friends, methinks I see a silvern shape Like faint mist floating on the farthest sea.