Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/407

Rh The solitude of her whom thou hast wrong'd—

That scanty grace shall earn thee this reply.—

First, for our union. Trust me, 'twixt us two

The brazen-footed Fury ever stalks,

Waving her hundred hands, a torch in each,

Aglow with angry fire, to keep us twain.

Now, for thyself. Thou com'st with well-cloak'd joy,

To announce the ruin of my husband's house,

To sound thy triumph in his widow's ears,

To bid her share thine unendanger'd throne.

To this thou wouldst have answer. Take it: Fly!...

Cut short thy triumph, seeming at its height;

Fling off thy crown, supposed at last secure;

Forsake this ample, proud Messenian realm;

To some small, humble, and unnoted strand,

Some rock more lonely than that Lemnian isle

Where Philoctetes pined, take ship and flee!

Some solitude more inaccessible

Than the ice-bastion'd Caucasian Mount

Chosen a prison for Prometheus, climb!

There in unvoiced oblivion sink thy name,

And bid the sun, thine only visitant,

Divulge not to the far-off world of men

What once-famed wretch he there did espy hid.

There nurse a late remorse, and thank the Gods,

And thank thy bitterest foe, that, having lost

All things but life, thou lose not life as well.

POLYPHONTES.

What mad bewilderment of grief is this?

MEROPE.

Thou art bewilder'd; the sane head is mine.