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30 To the chamber back; and let your drownèd eyes

Answer the music of these bridal cries!

O Mother, fill mine hair with happy flowers,

And speed me forth. Yea, if my spirit cowers,

Drive me with wrath! So liveth Loxias,

A bloodier bride than ever Helen was

Go I to Agamemnon, Lord most high

Of Hellas! I shall kill him, mother; I

Shall kill him, and lay waste his house with fire

As he laid ours. My brethren and my sire

Shall win again

(Checking herself) But part I must let be,

And speak not. Not the axe that craveth me,

And more than me; not the dark wanderings

Of mother-murder that my bridal brings,

And all the House of Atreus down, down, down

Nay, I will show thee. Even now this town

Is happier than the Greeks. I know the power

Of God is on me: but this little hour,

Wilt thou but listen, I will hold him back!

One love, one woman's beauty, o'er the track

Of hunted Helen, made their myriads fall.

And this their King so wise, who ruleth all,

What wrought he? Cast out Love that Hate might feed:

Gave to his brother his own child, his seed