By spouts and fountains wild— Farewell! and when thy days are told, Thy corpse shall buried be; For thee a funeral bell shall ring, A Christian psalm for thee. LAODAMIA. "WITH sacrifice, before the rising morn Him of the infernal Gods have I desired : Celestial pity I again implore ; Restore him to my sight-great Jove, restore!" So speaking, and by fervent love endowed With faith, the Suppliant heavenward lifts her hands; Her countenance brightens-and her eye expands, O terror! what hath she perceived? O joy! What doth she look on ?-whom doth she behold? Her Hero slain upon the beach of Troy? Mild Hermes spake—and touched her with his wand Thy Husband walks the paths of upper air: He comes to tarry with thee three hours' space; Forth sprang the impassioned Queen her Lord to clasp; But unsubstantial Form eludes her grasp 66 Protesilaus, lo! thy guide is gone! Confirm, I pray, the vision with thy voice: "Great Jove, Laodamia, doth not leave "Thou know'st, the Delphic oracle foretold A generous cause a victim did demand; And forth I leapt upon the sandy plain; A self-devoted chief-by Hector slain." "Supreme of Heroes-bravest, noblest, blest! Thy matchless courage I bewail no more, That then, when tens of thousands were deprest "But thou, though capable of sternest deed, As when their breath enriched Thessalian air. "No Spectre greets me,—no vain Shadow this : Jove frowned in heaven: the conscious Parce threw "This visage tells thee that my doom is past : Know, virtue were not virtue if the joys Of sense were able to return as fast "Be taught, O faithful Consort, to control "Ah, wherefore ?-Did not Hercules by force Wrest from the guardian Monster of the tomb Alcestis, a reanimated corse, Given back to dwell on earth in beauty's bloom? Medea's spells dispersed the weight of years, "The Gods to us are merciful-and they Yet further may relent for mightier far Than strength of nerve and sinew, or the sway Of magic, potent over sun and star, Is love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his favourite seat be feeble woman's breast. "But if thou go'st, I follow- "Peace!" he said She looked upon him and was calmed and cheered; In his deportment, shape, and mien, appeared Brought from a pensive though a happy place. He spake of love, such love as Spirits feel Of all that is most beauteous-imaged there And fields invested with purpureal gleams; Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest day Yet there the Soul shall enter which hath earned That privilege by virtue.-" Ill," said he, "The end of man's existence I discerned, Who from ignoble games and revelry 30 Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight, "And while my youthful peers before my eyes "The wish'd-for wind was given :-I then revolved That, of a thousand vessels, mine should be "Yet bitter, oft-times bitter, was the pang "But should suspense permit the foe to cry, 'Behold they tremble!-haughty their array, Yet of their number no one dares to die ?'In soul I swept the indignity away: Old frailties then recurred :—but lofty thought, In act embodied, my deliverance wrought. "And thou, though strong in love, art all too weak In reason, in self-government too slow; I counsel thee by fortitude to seek Our blest re-union in the shades below. The invisible world with thee hath sympathised; Be thy affections raised and solemnized. "Learn by a mortal yearning to ascend Towards a higher object :-Love was given, |