Page:Suppliant Maidens (Morshead) 1883.djvu/54

40 What champion, what saviour but death can I find, or what refuge from lust?

I will utter my shriek of entreaty, a prayer that shrills up to the sky,

That calleth the gods to compassion, a tuneful, a pitiful cry,

That is loud to invoke the releaser. O father, look down on the fight;

Look down in thy wrath on the wronger, with eyes that are eager for right.

Zeus, thou that art lord of the world, whose kingdom is strong over all,

Have mercy on us! At thine altar for refuge and safety we call.

For the race of Ægyptus is fierce, with lust and with malice afire;

They cry as the questing hounds, they sweep with the speed of desire.

But thine is the balance of fate, thou rulest the wavering scale,

And without thee no mortal emprise shall have strength to achieve or prevail.

Alack, alack! the ravisher—

He leaps from boat to beach, he draweth near!

Away, thou plunderer accurst!

Death seize thee first,

Or e'er thou touch me—off! God, hear our cry,

Our maiden agony!

Ah, ah, the touch, the prelude of my shame.

Alas, my maiden fame!