ORPHEUS, FINDING EURYDICE DEAD, STUNG BY
SERPENT, LAMENTS OVER HER.
COME back, come back, come back, Eurydice!
Come back to me!
Lie not so quiet, draw some faint sharp breath!
It is not death:
It cannot, must not be, Eurydice.
Come back to me!
Let me as yet lament not! Let me stoop !—
Those eyelids droop
Not with mere death, but dreams, Eurydice !
Come back to me!
O you that were my lover and my wife!
Come back to life !
Come back, breathe softly from the breast of gold
These arms enfold.
Give me your lips and kiss me once! O wife,
Come back to life !
Nay, let the wind but stir the silky hair,
(God’s lesser air,
Not His full blossom of woman’s breath!) O wife,
Come back to life!
III