Though closed the portal seems, The airy feet of dreams cannot thus in walls incarcerate. We phantoms are and dreams What there lies hidden! But the oracle As ministers of the infernal powers; EPIMETHEUS. Thy pallor and thy silence terrify me! PANDORA. I have brought wrath and ruin on thy house! My heart hath braved the oracle that guarded The fatal secret from us, and my hand EPIMETHEUS. Then all is lost! I am indeed undone. PANDORA. That made me brave the oracle, revolts EPIMETHEUS. Youth, hope, and love : Even now in passing through the garden Upon the ground I saw a fallen nest I pray for punishment, and not for par- Busy in building a new habitation. don. I am a woman; EPIMETHEUS. May the Eumenides Put out their torches and behold us not, And fling away their whips of scorpions And touch us not. PANDORA. Me let them punish. Only through punishment of our evil deeds, Only through suffering, are we reconciled CHORUS OF THE EUMENIDES. Never shall souls like these The daughters dark of Acheron and Unquenched our torches glare, Send forth prophetic sounds before they smite. Never by lapse of time The soul defaced by crime Into its former self returns again; Holds in itself the seed Of retribution and undying pain. Never shall be the loss Restored, till Helios Hath purified them with his heavenly Then what was lost is won, And the insurgent demon in my nature, Kindled with nobler passions and desires. But still the fire upon the hearth burns on, And I alone remain. O fortunate, O happy day, When a new household finds its place So said the guests in speech and song, As shadows passing into deeper shade For two alone, there in the hall, They want no guests, to come between The great, forgotten world outside; They want no guests; they needs must be Each other's own best company. III. THE picture fades ; as at a village fair screen, Appears the selfsame scene. Seated, I see the two again, With face as round as is the moon ; Are these celestial manners? these IV. As one who walking in a forest sees A lovely landscape through the parted trees, |