LAODAMEIA. "WITH sacrifice, before the rising morn Performed, my slaughtered Lord have I required; 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; While, like the sun emerging from a cloud, Her countenance brightens-and her eye expands; O terror! what hath she perceived ?—O joy! And a God leads him, wingèd Mercury! Mild Hermes spake-and touched her with his wand That calms all fear: "Such grace hath crowned thy prayer, Laodameia! that at Jove's command Thy husband walks the paths of upper air: He comes to tarry with thee three hours' space : N Forth sprang the impassioned Queen her Lord to clasp: "Protesilaos, lo! thy guide is gone! Confirm, I pray, the vision with thy voice: "Great Jove, Laodameia! doth not leave And something also did my worth obtain ; "Thou knowest, the Delphic oracle foretold That the first Greek who touched the Trojan strand Should die; but me the threat could not withhold: 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, best! Thy matchless courage I bewail no more, Which then, when tens of thousands were deprest By doubt, propelled thee to the fatal shore; Thou found'st-and I forgive thee-here thou artA nobler counsellor than my poor heart. "But thou, though capable of sternest deed, As when their breath enriched Thessalian air. "No Spectre greets me-no vain Shadow this; "This visage tells thee that my doom is past : "Be taught, O faithful consort, to control 'Ah, wherefore?-Did not Hercules by force Given back to dwell on earth in vernal bloom? "The Gods to us are merciful-and they Yet further may relent: for mightier far Is love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his favourite seat be feeble woman's breast. "But if thou goest, I follow" "Peace !" he said.— She looked upon him and was calmed and cheered; The ghastly colour from his lips had fled; 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 Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight, While tears were thy best pastime, day and night; "And while my youthful peers before my eyes "The wished-for wind was given :-I then revolved And, if no worthier led the way, resolved "Yet bitter, oft-times bitter, was the pang When of thy loss I thought, beloved Wife! On thee too fondly did my memory hang, And on the joys we shared in mortal life,—— The paths which we have trod-these fountains, flowers; My new-planned cities, and unfinished towers. "But should suspense permit the foe to cry, In soul I swept the indignity away: Old frailties then recurred :—but lofty thought, "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 solemnised. |