To Hell; and she answering his eyes, cried:
“Minstrel, depart in peace, and with thy Bride!”
The Manes registered the high decree,
Adding that, since no mortal eyes may see
Spirit take flesh, Orpheus must be resigned,
Till Earth was reached, never to look behind.
And as they wrote and sealed what their Queen spoke,
From unseen instruments weird music broke,—
An owlet’s hooting, a swan’s dying cry—
A rapture near akin to agony.