Ode

ODE (in Sapphic metre)

That I’m doomed to die I believed it never; Always young and clad in my mantle I wandered, Dreaming eyes uplifted for ever fixed on Solitude’s starlight.

When so sudden, there on my pathway rising, Sorrow, O so painfully sweet, thou camest! Then with deep delight to the dregs I drank thy Merciless death cup.

And like Nessus burning alive and tortured, Poisoned as was Hercules with his garment, This great fire that’s blazing in me I cannot Quench with an ocean.

My own dream consuming me, sore lamenting, On my pyre I die thus to ashes burning… Can I from it living arise as bright as Phoenix the immortal?

Troubling eyes, go out of my way for ever! Back to me indifference dreary come now! That I may in quietness die, O give me Back my old selfhood!