O'er Phlegethon he stood:
Below him roared and flamed
The flood
For utmost anguish named.
And lo, across the night,
The shining form he knew
With light
Swift footsteps upward drew.
Up through the desolate lands
She stole, a ghostly star,
With hands
Outstretched to him afar.
With arms outstretched, she came
In yearning majesty,
The same
Royal Eurydice.
Up through the ghastly dead
She came, with shining eyes
And red
Sweet lips of child-surprise.
Up through the wizened crowds
She stole, as steals the moon
Through clouds
Of flowery mist in June.
He gazed: he ceased to smite
The golden-chorded lyre:
Delight
Consumed his heart with fire.
Though in that deadly land
His task was but half-done,
His hand
Drooped, and the fight half-won.
He saw the breasts that glowed,
The fragrant clouds of hair:
They flowed
Around him like a snare.
O'er Phlegethon he stood,
For utmost anguish named:
The flood
Below him roared and flamed.