Page:Agamemnon (1877) Browning.djvu/136

120 Of an old victory—came: with time, I grant you!

I stand where I have struck, things once accomplished:

And so have done,—and this deny I shall not,—

As that his fate was nor to fly nor ward off.

A wrap-round with no outlet, as for fishes,

I fence about him—the rich woe of the garment:

I strike him twice, and in a double "Ah-me!"

He let his limbs go—there! And to him, fallen,

The third blow add I, giving—of Below-ground

Zeus, guardian of the dead—the votive favour.

Thus in the mind of him he rages, falling,

And blowing forth a brisk blood-spatter, strikes me

With the dark drop of slaughterous dew—rejoicing

No less than, at the god-given dewy-comfort,

The sown-stuff in its birth-throes from the calyx.