And bring her back! come back, Eurydice! -
Come back, pale wanderer to Eternity!
Come back, my wife, my wife, again to love!
Come back, my wife! come back, come back to me!
Enough! my purpose holds: no feeble cries!
No sob shall shake these nerves : no ecstasies
Of hope, or fear, or love avail to move
Those iron-hearted dooms and destinies.
I will be calm and firm as I were Zeus.
I will descend to Hades and unloose
My wife: prevail on pale Persephone,
Laving her love-locks with exalted dews
Of stern grey song; such roseate tunes espouse
That all the echoes of that lonely house
Answer me sob for sob, that she decree
With love deep-seated in her lofty brows
Forth sparkling: and with Hades intercede.
So as I stir the judgment-seat, and plead,
The awful brows may lighten, and decree
My wife’s return—a poet’s lofty meed!
EXPLICIT LIBER SECUNDUS
END OF VOLUME I
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