Page:Poems, Alan Seeger, 1916.djvu/169

 In the embrace of that dividing fire,

Which seems to curl above the fabled pyre,

Where with his twin-born brother, fiercely hated,

Eteocles was laid." He answered, "Mated

In punishment as once in wrath they were,

Ulysses there and Diomed incur

The eternal pains; there groaning they deplore

The ambush of the horse, which made the door

For Rome's imperial seed to issue: there

In anguish too they wail the fatal snare

Whence dead Deidamia still must grieve,

Reft of Achilles; likewise they receive

Due penalty for the Palladium."

"Master," I said, "if in that martyrdom

The power of human speech may still be theirs,

I pray—and think it worth a thousand prayers—

That, till this hornèd flame be come more nigh,

We may abide here; for thou seest that I

With great desire incline to it." And he:

"Thy prayer deserves great praise; which willingly

I grant; but thou refrain from speaking; leave

That task to me; for fully I conceive

What thing thou wouldst, and it might fall perchance

That these, being Greeks, would scorn thine utterance."

So when the flame had come where time and place

Seemed not unfitting to my guide with grace

To question, thus he spoke at my desire:

"O ye that are two souls within one fire, 119