I LOVED him not; and yet now he is gone I feel I am alone.

I check'd him while he spoke; yet could he speak,

Alas! I would not check.

For reasons not to love him once I sought,

And wearied all my thought

To vex myself and him: I now would give

My love, could he but live

Who lately lived for me, and when he found

'Twas vain, in holy ground

He hid his face amid the shades of death.

I waste for him my breath

Who wasted his for me: but mine returns,

And this lorn bosom burns

With stifling heat, heaving it up in sleep,
And waking me to weep

Tears that had melted his soft heart:
for years
Wept he as bitter tears.
Merciful God! such was his latest

prayer,

These may she never share.

Quieter is his breath, his breast more cold,

Than daisies in the mould,

Where children spell, athwart the churchyard gate,

1 This and the following poem are from the Citation of William Shakespeare.

Aulis had no sharp sword, thou wouldst exclaim,

Greece no avenger-I, her chief so late, Through Erebos, through Elysium, writhe beneath it.

Iphigeneia. Come, I have better diadems than those

Of Argos and Mycenai: come away, And I will weave them for you on the bank.

You will not look so pale when you have walk'd

A little in the grove, and have told all
Those sweet fond words the widow sent
her child.
Agamemnon.

O Earth! I suffered less upon thy shores!

(Aside.) The bath that bubbled with my blood, the blows

That spilt it (O worse torture!) must she know?

Ah! the first woman coming from Mycenai

Will pine to pour this poison in her ear, Taunting sad Charon for his slow ad

Of my brief course on earth, I did amiss, Say it at once, and let me be unblessed; But, O my faultless father! why should you?

And shun so my embraces?

Am I wild

And wandering in my fondness?

Groan not thus deeply;

the season

We are shades! blight not thus

Of full-orb'd gladness! Shades we are indeed,

But mingled, let us feel it, with the blessed.

I knew it, but forgot it suddenly,
Altho' I felt it all at your approach.
Look on me; smile with me at my
illusion.

You are so like what you have ever been
(Except in sorrow!) I might well forget
I could not win you as I used to do.
It was the first embrace since my de-
scent

I ever aim'd at: those who love me live, Save one, who loves me most, and now would chide me.

Agamemnon. We want not, O Iphigeneia, we

Want not embrace, nor kiss that cools the heart

[more]

With purity, nor words that more and Teach what we know, from those we know, and sink

Often most deeply where they fall most

light.

Time was when for the faintest breath

Semi-chorus

Iphigeneia! 'tis to thee

Glory we owe and victory.

Clash, men of Argos, clash your

arms,

To martial worth and virgin charms.

Other Semi-chorus

Ye men of Argos! it was sweet
To roll the fruits of conquest at the feet
Whose whispering sound made bravest
hearts beat fast.

This we have known at home;
But hither we are come

To crown the king who ruled us first and last.

Chorus

Father of Argos! king of men ! We chant the hymn of praise to thee.

In serried ranks we stand again,

Our glory safe, our country free.