Ambergris

AMBERGRIS 11 FROM JEPHTHAH Chorus of Maidens O the time of dule and teen ! O the dove the hawk has snared ! Would to God we had not been, We, who see our maiden queen, Love has slain whom hate had spared. Sorrow for our sister sways All our maiden bosoms bared To the dying vesper rays, Where the sun below the bays Of the West is stooping ; All our hearts together drooping, Flowers the ocean bears. All the garb that gladness wears To a rent uncouth attire Changed with cares ; Happy songs our love had made Ere the sun had sunk his fire, In the moonrise fall and fade, And the dregs of our desire Fall away to death. Tears divide our labouring breath That of our sister—O our sister ! Moon and sun and stars have kissed her ! She must touch the lips of death, Touch the lips whose coldness saith : Thou art clay. Let us fare away, away To the ice whose ocean gray Tumbles on the beach of rock, Where the wheeling vultures mock Our distress with horrid cries ; Where the flower relenting dies,