Page:House of Atreus 2nd ed (1889).djvu/185

Rh None gathers up: it lies—bear witness, Hell!—

For aye indelible!

And thou who sheddest it shalt give thine own

That shedding to atone!

Yea, from thy living limbs I suck it out,

Red, clotted, gout by gout,—

A draught abhorred of men and gods; but I

Will drain it, suck thee dry;

Yea, I will waste thee living, nerve and vein;

Yea, for thy mother slain,

Will drag thee downward, there where thou shalt dree

The weird of agony!

And thou and whosoe'er of men hath sinned—

Hath wronged or God, or friend,

Or parent,—learn ye how to all and each

The arm of doom can reach!

Sternly requiteth, in the world beneath,

The judgment-seat of Death;

Yea, Death, beholding every man's endeavour,

Recordeth it for ever.

I, schooled in many miseries, have learnt

How many refuges of cleansing shrines

There be; I know when law alloweth speech

And when imposeth silence. Lo, I stand

Fixed now to speak, for he whose word is wise

Commands the same. Look, how the stain of blood

Is dull upon mine hand and wastes away,

And laved and lost therewith is the deep curse

Of matricide; for while the guilt was new,

'Twas banished from me at Apollo's hearth,

Atoned and purified by death of swine.

Long were my word if I should sum the tale,