Oh Thou, whom alone of Immortals
But to name is a fear among men,
Through the gloom of whose terrible portals
Is no turning again,
When, ghost after ghost, to thy regions
Unlovely to flee we are fain,
As the wild winter-swans flock in legions
Remote o'er the main!

I come not with insult Titanic
To thy consort as Tityos came,
Whom to Lust, a perpetual panic,
Thy retributive flame
At her feet laid immense in his anguish;
Nor clothed on with Herakles' might,
Am I here thy Three-headed to vanquish,
Dread Monarch of Night!

I, alas, am that Orpheus ill-fortuned,
Who with song, in his pleasant youth flown,
Wooed flowers from waste places, importuned
Clear streams from the stone;
And with magic maturer united
Man to man in the graces of art,
Till Eros drew bow, and delighted
Two souls with his smart.

Spring sisterly smiled on my wooing,
Summer motherly welcomed my wife;
But a foe, Autumn entered, subduing
All sweetness of life.
For alas, like a pure lily-blossom
Transfixed by the brier of the brake,
She has fallen, the bride of my bosom
A spoil to the snake —

Evil beast, that for slaughter lay slunken
Subtle-eyed at the shadowy ford,
What time, scarce escaped from the drunken
Unchaste Honey-Lord,
Up the slope of the Hebrus she hurried,
Witless quite of a new foe beneath,
Till his fangs in her fair flesh he buried —
The darter of Death.

Grief-distraught by her side on the morrow,
With rent raiment and locks dust-defiled,
Low I lay, till there stole on my sorrow
The voice of a child.
" Take comfort, sad son of Apollo!
Arise, nothing fearing, and lay
Thy hand to thy lute-strings, and follow,
For Love leads the way. "

From the corse my despairful clasp sunders;
Hope-flushed the dear harp I invade;
Earth shakes at the sound, the air thunders,
And the deeps are dismayed.
Yea! the Day Sire above thee, thy brother,
Tellus old, and the Lord of the Main,
Weird laughter with strange sighings smother,
Mirth with moanings of pain;

Whilst a God to thine awful dominion
Greatly guided my feet from above,
The All-wise, All-pervasive-of-pinion,
Omnipotent Love!
On we fared! Orcus opened to list us!
On we fared! Death herself dropped a tear!
Charon, Cerberus, may not resist us,
And unharmed we are here.

Now, O King, for the cause of our mission
Thou hast heard; knowing also the worth
Of the lost one, at Love's own petition
Redeem her to earth! —
Love, who steered thy black steeds to the meadows
Of Enna, and won thee the bride,
Who now queens it o'er congregate shadows,
Enthroned at thy side! —
Love, the ally, through whom thou prolongest
Bliss supreme in these joyless abodes!
Love! Love! still the weakest, the strongest,
Eldest, youngest of Gods!