I saw the grim and ghastly Minotaur
Move through the Cretan labyrinth—his deadly, ponderous jaws ajar.
I saw my brother fall by felon hands;
I saw my father’s galleys sweep the seas,
And humbled Athens, cowering like a slave, ask mercy from her knees.
Minos pronounced his doom: the morrow morn
Beheld the sacrifice. I would have wept,
But could not: in their heated cells the sought for tears in silence slept.
I pitied him; I could not see him die;
I loved—was woman; though my brother’s blood