As I lay on the grass, with the sun in the west, A woman went by me, a babe at her breast; She kissed it and pressed it, She cooed, she caressed it, Then rocked it to sleep in her elbow-nest.
She rocked it to rest with a sad little song, How the days were grown short, and the nights grown long;
How love was a rover, How summer was over, How the winds of winter were shrill and strong.
We must haste, she sang, while the sky is bright, While the paths are plain and the town's in sight, Lest the shadows that watch us Should creep up and catch us, For the dead walk here in the grass at night.
[The voice withdraws farther down the woods, but from a lower istance, in the clear evening, the last stanza is heard repeated. The Goddesses continue silent, until the voice has died away.]
Chloris.
Rude words set to rude music; but they seem to penetrate to the very core of the heart.
Maia.
Are you sad to-night, Chloris?