Erechtheus | Page 9

foot be swifter than thy tongue?And I that part not to return again?On him that comes not to depart away 750 Be fallen before thee; for the time is full,?And with such mortal hope as knows not fear?I go this high last way to the end of all.
CHORUS.
Who shall put a bridle in the mourner's lips to chasten
them, [_Str._ 1. Or seal up the fountains of his tears for shame??Song nor prayer nor prophecy shall slacken tears nor hasten them, Till grief be within him as a burnt-out flame;
Till the passion be broken in his breast?And the might thereof molten into rest,?And the rain of eyes that weep be dry, 760 And the breath be stilled of lips that sigh.?Death at last for all men is a harbour; yet they flee from
it, [_Ant._ 1. Set sails to the storm-wind and again to sea;?Yet for all their labour no whit further shall they be from it, Nor longer but wearier shall their life's work be.
And with anguish of travail until night?Shall they steer into shipwreck out of sight,?And with oars that break and shrouds that strain?Shall they drive whence no ship steers again.?Bitter and strange is the word of the God most high, [_Str._ 2. 770
And steep the strait of his way.?Through a pass rock-rimmed and narrow the light that gleams On the faces of men falls faint as the dawn of dreams,?The dayspring of death as a star in an under sky
Where night is the dead men's day.?As darkness and storm is his will that on earth is done, [_Ant._ 2.
As a cloud is the face of his strength.?King of kings, holiest of holies, and mightiest of might, Lord of the lords of thine heaven that are humble in thy sight, Hast thou set not an end for the path of the fires of the sun, 780
To appoint him a rest at length??Hast thou told not by measure the waves of the waste wide
sea, [_Str._ 3. And the ways of the wind their master and thrall to thee?
Hast thou filled not the furrows with fruit for the
world's increase??Has thine ear not heard from of old or thine eye not read The thought and the deed of us living, the doom of us dead?
Hast thou made not war upon earth, and again made peace? Therefore, O father, that seest us whose lives are a
breath, [_Ant._ 3. Take off us thy burden, and give us not wholly to death.
For lovely is life, and the law wherein all things live, 790 And gracious the season of each, and the hour of its kind, And precious the seed of his life in a wise man's mind;
But all save life for his life will a base man give. But a life that is given for the life of the whole live
land, [_Str._ 4. From a heart unspotted a gift of a spotless hand,?Of pure will perfect and free, for the land's life's sake, What man shall fear not to put forth his hand and take? For the fruit of a sweet life plucked in its pure green
prime [_Ant._ 4. On his hand who plucks is as blood, on his soul as crime. With cursing ye buy not blessing, nor peace with strife, 800 And the hand is hateful that chaffers with death for life.
Hast thou heard, O my heart, and endurest [_Str._ 5. The word that is said,?What a garland by sentence found surest?Is wrought for what head??With what blossomless flowerage of sea-foam and blood-coloured
foliage inwound?It shall crown as a heifer's for slaughter the forehead for
marriage uncrowned??How the veils and the wreaths that should cover [_Ant._ 5. The brows of the bride?Shall be shed by the breath of what lover 810 And scattered aside??With a blast of the mouth of what bridegroom the crowns shall
be cast from her hair,?And her head by what altar made humble be left of them naked
and bare??At a shrine unbeloved of a God unbeholden a gift shall be given
for the land, [_Str._ 6. That its ramparts though shaken with clamour and horror of
manifold waters may stand;?That the crests of its citadels crowned and its turrets that
thrust up their heads to the sun?May behold him unblinded with darkness of waves overmastering
their bulwarks begun.?As a bride shall they bring her, a prey for the bridegroom, a
flower for the couch of her lord; [_Ant._ 6. They shall muffle her mouth that she cry not or curse them,
and cover her eyes from the sword.?They shall fasten her lips as with bit and with bridle, and
darken the light of her face, 820 That the soul of the slayer may not falter, his heart be not
molten, his hand give not grace.?If she weep then, yet may none that hear take pity; [_Str._ 7. If she cry not, none should hearken though she cried. Shall a virgin