ARGONAUTAE
Long stablished is young amity
Maid-blushing over Greece:
And fair Iolchus stands sublime,
A monument to lesson time.
WOMEN.
But if such fear were come indeed,
Who reads the riddle dread
Spoken in frenzy by the seer
Against the royal head?
We know the Rhyme’s involving spell—
Its purport is impenetrable.
MEN.
We heard his foolish maundering:
But, bred in wiser ways,
We have forgotten: do ye sing
The rune of ancient days!
To-day his curse cacophonous
Shall earn at least a laugh from us!
WOMEN.
“OQ! when the arméd hand is nigh,
Tolchus shall not see
Peace shining from Athena’s sky
Until the Fleece be free;
Until the God of War shall scorn
The sting, and trust him to the horn.
“Until the Sun of Spring forsake
His eastern home, and rise