Orpheus

Let all the life and dream and death be done, And all the love and hate be woven in one, All things be broken of the winter winds, No soul stand up and look upon the sun! Save only mine !|—that my voice may confound The universe, and spell the mighty sound To shake all heaven and earth, to mingle hell In chaos, in some limitless profound ; That it may tear Olympus from its place, Mix it with Hades, change the Ocean space, _ Level the tides of time that sink and swell, And curse my very father to his face! O father, father Apollo, did I wrong Thy chariot and thy horses in my song? Why clove thine arrow the unseated air, The heaven void of thee, why the thunder-thong Slipped from the tether, and the fatal stone Sped not to my heart, not to mine alone? Ah why not? but to hers as she lay sleeping By hate, not fate, quelled, fallen, and overthrown? She lies so pitiful and pure—and I, Breast to her breast, mouth to her mouth, I lie, Hand upon hand, and foot on foot, sore weeping— Can she not live again or I not die? 118