Page:Hephaestus, Persephone at Enna, and Sappho in Leucadia.djvu/46


 * The hounds of Hell
 * And Aidoneus himself—


 * Hush!


 * You I seek!
 * The sorrow of your voice enraptures me,
 * And though you would elude me, still this arm
 * Is strong, and this great heart as daring as
 * That dusky night in Lesbos long ago!


 * Stop, son of passion,—hear!


 * Not till these arms,
 * O Oriole-throated woman, hold and fold
 * About your beauty as in Lesbos once!


 * By all the hours you darkened, by the love
 * You crushed and left forsaken, hear me now!


 * Thus women change! thus in their time forget!


 * There lies the sorrow—if we could forget!
 * For one brief hour you gave me all the love
 * That women ask, and then with cruel hands
 * Set free the singing voices from the cage,
 * And shook the glory from the waiting rose;
 * And in life’s empty garden still I clung