Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/239

Rh THE CHORUS.

Nor was the love untrue

Which the Dawn-Goddess bore

To that fair youth she erst,

Leaving the salt sea-beds,

And coming flushed over the stormy frith

Of loud Euripus, saw,—

Saw and snatched, wild with love,

From the pine-dotted spurs

Of Parnes, where thy waves,

Asopus! gleam rock-hemmed,—

The Hunter of the Tanagræan Field.13

But him, in his sweet prime,

By severance immature,

By Artemis' soft shafts,

She, though a goddess born,

Saw in the rocky isle of Delos die.

Such end o'ertook that love.

For she desired to make

Immortal mortal man,

And blend his happy life,

Far from the gods, with hers;

To him postponing an eternal law.

HÆMON.

But like me, she, wroth, complaining,

Succumbed to the envy of unkind gods;

And, her beautiful arms unclasping,

Her fair youth unwillingly gave.

THE CHORUS.

Nor, though enthroned too high

To fear assault of envious gods,