Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/272

 every crevice;
 * we have never twined us
 * like wreaths round fruitage.

PEER
 * Not in vain your birth, however;-
 * lie but still and serve as manure.

A SIGHING IN THE AIR
 * We are songs;
 * thou shouldst have sung us!-
 * a thousand times over
 * hast thou cowed us and smothered us.
 * Down in thy heart's pit
 * we have lain and waited;-
 * we were never called forth.
 * In thy gorge be poison!

PEER
 * Poison thee, thou foolish stave!
 * Had I time for verse and stuff?
 * [Attempts a short cut.]

DEWDROPS [dripping from the branches].
 * We are tears
 * unshed for ever.
 * Ice-spears, sharp-wounding,
 * we could have melted.
 * Now the barb rankles
 * in the shaggy bosom;-
 * the wound is closed over;
 * our power is ended.

PEER
 * Thanks;-I wept in Ronde-cloisters,-
 * none the less they tied the tail on!

BROKEN STRA