First, that a wife sat sundered from her lord, In widowed solitude, was utter woe And woe, to hear how rumour's many tongues All boded evil-woe, when he who came And he who followed spake of ill on ill, Keening Lost, lost, all lost! thro' hall and bower.
Had this my husband met so many wounds, As by a thousand channels rumour told, No network e'er was full of holes as he.
Had he been slain, as oft as tidings came That he was dead, he well might boast him now A second Geryon of triple frame, With triple robe of earth above him laid-For that below, no matter-triply dead, Dead by one death for every form he bore.
And thus distraught by news of wrath and woe, Oft for self-slaughter had I slung the noose, But others wrenched it from my neck away.
Hence haps it that Orestes, thine and mine, The pledge and symbol of our wedded troth, Stands not beside us now, as he should stand.
Nor marvel thou at this: he dwells with one Who guards him loyally; 'tis Phocis' king, Strophius, who warned me erst, Bethink thee, queen, What woes of doubtful issue well may fall Thy lord in daily jeopardy at Troy, While here a populace uncurbed may cry, "Down witk the council, down!" bethink thee too, 'Tis the world's way to set a harder heel On fallen power.
For thy child's absence then Such mine excuse, no wily afterthought.
For me, long since the gushing fount of tears Is wept away; no drop is left to shed.
Dim are the eyes that ever watched till dawn, Weeping, the bale-fires, piled for thy return, Night after night unkindled. If I slept, Each sound-the tiny humming of a gnat, Roused me again, again, from fitful dreams Wherein I felt thee smitten, saw thee slain, Thrice for each moment of mine hour of sleep.
All this I bore, and now, released from woe, I hail my lord as watch-dog of a fold, As saving stay-rope of a storm-tossed ship, As column stout that holds the roof aloft, As only child unto a sire bereaved, As land beheld, past hope, by crews forlorn, As sunshine fair when tempest's wrath is past, As gushing spring to thirsty wayfarer.
So sweet it is to 'scape the press of pain.