The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas - Bridges Robert

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Alas! Alas!

       Pr. Yet shall she live though lost; from human form

       Changed, that thou wilt not know thy daughter more. 1051

       In. Woe, woe! my thought was praying for her death.

       Pr. In Hera's temple shall her prison be

       At high Mycenæ, till from heaven be sent

       Hermes, with song to soothe and sword to slay

       The beast whose hundred eyes devour the door.

       In. Enough, enough is told, unless indeed,

       The beast once slain, thou canst restore our child.

       Pr. Nay, with her freedom will her wanderings

       Begin. Come hither, child—nay, let her come: 1060

       What words remain to speak will not offend her.

       And shall in memory quicken, when she looks

       To learn where she should go;—for go she must,

       Stung by the venomous fly, whose angry flight

       She still will hear about her, till she come

       To lay her sevenfold-carried burden down

       Upon the Æthiop shore where he shall reign.

       In. But say—say first, what form—

       Pr. In snow-white hide

       Of those that feel the goad and wear the yoke. 1069

       In. Round-hoofed, or such as tread with cloven foot?{35}

       Pr. Wide-horned, large-eyed, broad-fronted, and the feet

       Cloven which carry her to her far goal.

       In. Will that of all these evils be the term?

       Pr. Ay, but the journey first which she must learn.

       Hear now, my child; the day when thou art free,

       Leaving the lion-gate, descend and strike

       The Trêtan road to Nemea, skirting wide

       The unhunted forest o'er the watered plain

       To walled Cleônæ, whence the traversed stream

       To Corinth guides: there enter not, but pass 1080

       To narrow Isthmus, where Poseidon won

       A country from Apollo, and through the town

       Of Crommyon, till along the robber's road

       Pacing, thy left eye meet the westering sun

       O'er Geraneia, and thou reach the hill

       Of Megara, where Car thy brother's babe

       In time shall rule; next past Eleusis climb

       Stony Panactum and the pine-clad slopes

       Of Phyle; shun the left-hand way, and keep

       The rocks; the second day thy feet shall tread 1090

       The plains of Græa, whence the roadway serves

       Aulis and Mycalessus to the point

       Of vext Euripus: fear not then the stream,

       Nor scenting think to taste, but plunging in

       Breast its salt current to the further shore.

       For on this island mayst thou lose awhile

       Thy maddening pest, and rest and pasture find,

       And from the heafs of bold Macistus see

       The country left and sought: but when thou feel

       Thy torment urge, move down, recross the flood, 1100

       And west by Harma's fencèd gap arrive

       At seven-gated Thebes: thy friendly goddess

       Ongan Athenè has her seat without.

       Chor. Now if she may not stay thy toilsome destined steps,

       I pray that she may slay for thee the maddening fly.{36}

       Pr. Keep not her sanctuary long, but seek

       Bœotian Ascra, where the Muses' fount,

       Famed Aganippè, wells: Ocalea

       Pass, and Tilphusa's northern steeps descend

       By Alalcomenæ, the goddess' town. 1110

       Guard now the lake's low shore, till thou have crossed

       Hyrcana and Cephissus, the last streams

       Which feed its reedy pools, when thou shalt come

       Between two mountains that enclose the way

       By peakèd Abæ to Hyampolis.

       The right-hand path that thither parts the vale

       Opes to Cyrtonè and the Locrian lands;

       Toward Elateia thou, where o'er the marsh

       A path with stones is laid; and thence beyond

       To Thronium, Tarphè, and Thermopylæ, 1120

       Where rocky Lamia views the Maliac gulf.

       Chor. If further she should go, will she not see

       That other Argos, the Dodonian land?

       Pr. Crossing the Phthian hills thou next shall reach

       Pharsalus, and Olympus' peakèd snows

       Shall guide thee o'er the green Pelasgic plains

       For many a day, but to Argissa come

       Let old Peneius thy slow pilot be

       Through Tempè, till they turn upon his left

       Crowning the wooded slopes with splendours bare. 1130

       Thence issuing forth on the Pierian shore

       Northward of Ossa thou shalt touch the lands

       Of Macedon.

       Chor. Alas, we wish thee speed,

       But bid thee here farewell; for out of Greece

       Thou goest 'mongst the folk whose chattering speech

       Is like the voice of birds, nor home again

       Wilt thou return.

       Pr. Thy way along the coast

       Lies till it southward turn, when thou shalt seek

       Where wide on Strymon's plain the hindered flood{37} Spreads like a lake; thy course to his oppose 1140 And face him to the mountain whence he comes: Which doubled, Thrace receives thee: barbarous names Of mountain, town and river, and a people Strange to thine eyes and ears, the Agathyrsi, Of pictured skins, who owe no marriage law, And o'er whose gay-spun garments sprent with gold Their hanging hair is blue. Their torrent swim That measures Europe in two parts, and go Eastward along the sea, to mount the lands Beyond man's dwelling, and the rising steeps 1150 That face the sun untrodden and unnamed.— Know to earth's verge remote thou then art come, The Scythian tract and wilderness forlorn, Through whose rude rocks and frosty silences No path shall guide thee then, nor my words now. There as thou toilest o'er the treacherous snows, A sound then thou shall hear to stop thy breath, And prick thy trembling ears; a far-off cry, Whose throat seems the white mountain and its passion The woe of earth. Flee not, nor turn not back: 1160 Let thine ears drink and guide thine eyes to see That sight whose terrors shall assuage thy terror, Whose pain shall kill thy pain. Stretched on the rock, Naked to scorching sun, to pinching frost, To wind and storm and beaks of wingèd fiends From year to year he lies. Refrain to ask His name and crime—nay, haply when thou see him Thou wilt remember—'tis thy tyrant's foe, Man's friend, who pays his chosen penalty. Draw near, my child, for he will know thy need, 1170 And point from land to land thy further path.

      Chorus.

      O

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