Lowly I wait the song upon my lips conferred
—would have made the picture of the dark-eyed, dark-haired aspirant for immortality, kneeling before the white-robed angel, a simply perfect creation. The poem “Orion” is an outcome of his early love for classical literature, and when we consider that it was written by a boy standing on the threshold of life, it is wonderful; and shows distinctly what he may attain in coming years, when at the zenith of his power. This poem contains many lines of unsurpassed beauty. We quote the following couplet, which is taken from that part of the poem which describes Orion lying upon the seashore in his utter wretchedness, when the drug administered by the king is beginning to affect him. The scene is described as, at the setting of the sun —
The deep-eyed Night drew down to comfort him,
And lifted her great lids, and mourned for him.
And again, later in the night, a slave comes with the king bearing a cup containing the juice with which he puts out Orion’s eyes, and a servitor bearing a torch, before whose light —
All the darkness shuddered and fled back.
And how beautiful are the lines sung by the weeping sea-nymphs —
We all are made heavy of heart, we weep with thee, sore with thy sorrow;
The sea to its utmost part, the night from the dusk to the morrow.
And again, when he regains his sight —