Robert Browning

“ To the chasm, indeed, but elsewhere known enough,
Among the shadows and the silences
Above i' the sky: so, each antagonist
Silently faced his fellow and forbore,
Till Death shrilled, hard and quick, in spite and fear:
"Ha, ha, and what may'st thou do at the domes, ⁠430
Why hauntest here, thou Phoibos? Here again
At the old injustice, limiting our rights,
Baulking of honour due us Gods o' the grave? ”

“ Dear gift from the dear hand!"
"Do thou become ⁠920
Mother, now, to these children in my place!"
"Great the necessity I should be so,
At least, to these bereaved of thee!"
"Child — child!
Just when I needed most to live, below
Am I departing from you both!"
"Ah me!
And what shall I do, then, left lonely thus?"
"Time will appease thee: who is dead is nought."
"Take me with thee — take, by the Gods below!"
"We are sufficient, we who die for thee."
"O Powers, ye widow me of what a wife!" ⁠930
"And truly the dimmed eye draws earthward now!" ”

“ Close on us of a sudden! who, pale priest
Of the mute people, means to bear his prey
To the house of Hades. The symmetric step!
How he treads true to time and place and thing,
Dogging day, hour and minute, for death's-due! ”

“ What wilt thou do? Unhand me! Such a way
I have to traverse, all unhappy one!"
"Way — piteous to thy friends, but, most of all,
Me and thy children: ours assuredly
A common partnership in grief like this!"
Whereat they closed about her; but "Let be!
Leave, let me lie now! Strength forsakes my feet. ⁠750
Hades is here, and shadowy on my eyes
Comes the night creeping. Children — children, now
Indeed, a mother is no more for you! ”

“ O Paian, that thou would'st dispart the wave
O' the woe, be present! Yet, had woe o'erwhelmed
The housemates, they were hardly silent thus:
It cannot be, the dead is forth and gone.
Whence comes thy gleam of hope? I dare not hope: ⁠520
What is the circumstance that heartens thee?
How could Admetos have dismissed a wife
So worthy, unescorted to the grave? ”

“ Eyeing his fellow: formidably fixed,
Yet faultering too at who affronted him. ⁠410
As somehow disadvantaged, should they strive.
Like some dread heapy blackness, ruffled wing,
Convulsed and cowering head that is all eye,
Which proves a ruined eagle who, too blind
Swooping in quest o' the quarry, fawn or kid,
Descried deep down the chasm 'twixt rock and rock,
Has wedged and mortised, into either wall
O' the mountain, the pent earthquake of his power ”

“ Rather, to despatch the true mature."
"Truly I take thy meaning, see thy drift!"
"Is there a way then she may reach old age?"
"No way! I glad me in my honours too!"
"But, young or old, thou tak'st one life, no more!"
"Younger they die, greater my praise redounds!" ⁠460
"If she die old, — the sumptuous funeral!" ”

“ Did wit lurk there and 'scape thy sense?"
"Who could buy substitutes would die old men."
"It seems thou wilt not grant me, then, this grace?"
"This grace I will not grant: thou know'st my ways."
"Ways harsh to men, hateful to Gods, at least!"
"All things thou canst not have: my rights for me!" ”

“ Sole wife, of all the wives 'neath the sun wide,
For glory and for goodness!" — "Ah, how else
Than best? who controverts the claim?" quoth she:
"What kind of creature should the woman prove
That has surpassed Alkestis? — surelier shown ⁠570
Preference for her husband to herself
Than by determining to die for him? ”

“ She missed no happiness that lay beneath:
"O thou wide earth, from these my palace roofs,
To distant nuptial chambers once my own
In that Iolkos of my ancestry!" —
There the flight failed her. "Raise thee, wretched one!
Give us not up! Pray pity from the Gods!" ⁠730
Vainly Admetos: for "I see it — see
The two-oared boat! The ferryer of the dead,
Charon, hand hard upon the boatman's-pole,
Calls me — even now calls — 'Why delayest thou?
Quick! Thou obstructest all made ready here
For prompt departure: quick, then!' "
"Woe is me! ”