THE PRAYER OF DRYOPE.
(Rondeau Redoublé.)
O goddess sweet, give ear unto my prayer.
Come with thy doves across the briny sea,
Leave thy tall fanes and thy rose gardens rare,
From cruel bondage set thy vot'ress free!
Ah how my heart would joy again to be
Like chirming bird that cleaves the sunny air,
Like wildwood roe that bounds in ecstasy;
O goddess sweet, give ear unto my prayer!
That I am innocent hast thou no care
Of crime against celestial deity?
Must I the fate of lovely Lotis share?—
Come with thy doves across the briny sea!
I hear no waters' silvern melody,
And yet the rippling water once was there,
And on its bloomy banks I worshipped thee;—
Leave thy tall fanes and thy rose gardens rare!
Could I but feel my boy's hands on my hair,
Could I but kiss my sister Iole,
Then bravely would I cast forth chill despair,
From cruel bondage set thy vot'ress free!
I, who was once the blithesome Dryope,
Am now a tree bole, cold and brown and bare;
Pity, I pray, my ceaseless agony,
Or grant forgetfulness of all things fair,
O goddess sweet.
Clinton Scollard.