Empedocles On Etna - A Dramatic Poem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABC BB D E A F CGABBCBABABHAAAAIAJK ALMANOKAKB A BAPQARA A STUBVWAXYIZKBB A A2B2BADGN A C2AQNAD2E2QNF2G2BH2I 2D2AABANJ2D A CD2K2L2BBM2DN2O2BAAN AABAP2BBAQA A AAAKANQ2F2 A UR2US2CL2AAT2AAU2QV2 AW2N2UR2AX2NY2QZ2 A AZ2E2RBAA3NB3AC3AU2A NY2CNB3JNQ2D3AB3BBR A E3R2F3AUB2X2 D QF2 A A G3H3M2N2GI3AJ3 A C3Z2K3K2B A ABAAL3AAM3CQ A Y2 A N3AO3P3C A L3BQB3 A AQ3 UN3B A M3AR3 A JG3I2R2R2B2B2AG3AI2A AAAAS3AI2S3I2R2R2PR2 DM3DT3PAA2T3R2M3AAAU 3AA2AACK2BV3BV3W3AX3 AX3W3 B3Q3B3Q3O AB3AB3Y3 BZ3BA4M2 B3QB3QZ2 AR2AR2A I3B4I3B4A U3AS3AA B3S3B3S3A X2AX2AB C4YC4YB DD4DZ2B X2AX2AB B3AB3AS3 M2AM2AS3 BABAA S3S3S3S3A BABAA I3AI3AA AR2AR2S3 S3S3S3S3S3 AL3AL3L2 EKEQ3L2 BABAB AQ3AQ3B QS3QS3M3 S3S3S3S3M3 S3XS3XA AS3AS3A S3M2S3M2A ABABA S3S3S3S3A AOACA AR2AR2E4 S3N2S3N2E4 S3R2S3R2R3 AS3AS3R3 BB3BB3S3 AF4AF4S3 S3I2S3I2Q S3S3S3S3Q M2BM2BU QAQAU S3S3S3S3B3 AAAAB3 S3I2S3I2A ABABA DU2DU2A AAAAA AS3AS3S3 S3M3S3M3S3 AAAAU2 BBBB G4S3G4S3S3 S3S3S3S3S3 H4AH4AS3 Q3R2Q3R2S3 US3US3I2 S3AS3AI2 M2S3M2S3 KI2Q3I2C AC4UC4A S3M2S3M2A EBEBA AS3AS3A AS3AS3S3 B3AB3AS3 S3S3S3S3P2 M2I4M2I4I2 F2AA KR2I2I2AI2AAAF2M3AAA AM3 AAAS3J4XS3H3J4 AR2AH3I2I2XR2H3 A AG3 A S3 A E2AD4F2AT2S3 A A A R2S3F2L2Z2F2S3AF2 F2 AK4AAANAAE D F2 A F2S3UF2E2F2S3F2B3DF2 M2L4OM3 AAB3F2Z2UW3B3S3AAAAS 3AS3AAZ2F2XM4S3E I2F2F2I2 Z2F2F2A S3N4AI3S3N4I3M3AM3AA AI2F2O4I2O4F2Z2Z2Z2 S3AS3AS3AAP4AP4S3DS3 AZ2AAAZ2M3CM3 A UI2S3F2S3Z2 F2AUES3F2ES3UAS3AF4S 3AAAF2AAH3UCI2S3Q4 F2 S3Z2S3Z2 AT2AC S3S3I3I3S3S3C4F2AC4C B3AT2F2F2S3 CCF2B3I2EI2EF2S3F2S3 AS3AS3S3S3 S3S3S3S3EEF2AAAAAF2A AAAAAAAAAAF2F2 A I2UI2S3AI2U AS3S3ADAF2AQ3F2Q3ANS 3B3AS3Z2Q3Q3 S3F2 F2Q3S3B3Q3B3Z2F2NAQ3 AAQ3S3 Q3Q3Q3F2AS3Q3Q3W3F2S 3F2S3F2W3F2Z2Q3Q3S3F 2S3Z2 Q3Q3S3Q3S3F2S3S3R4S3 S3Q3NF2S3W3NQ3Q3Q3Q3 Q3Z2F2Q3Q3H3S3Q3Q3Q3 Q3F2Z2Q3Q3Q3S3Q3Q3Q3 S3S3XS3Q3 S3AB3S3S3S3S3S3LS3F2 Q3Q3Q3Q3Q3S3S3B3F2S3 Q3Q3 F2Q3Q3Q3 S3Q3S3S3Q3 H3F2AQ3Q3Q3S3S3 Q3N2Q3F2Q3Q3 S3Q3S3XQ3S3UQ3Z2Q3US 3B3S3S4AQ3AQ3F2Q3B3S 3F2S3S3Q3S3S3S3Q3Q3F 2S3Q3S3S3Z2Q3Q3K4Q3T 4Z2B3Q3Q3S3Q3Z2N2F2S 3Q3Q3Q3Q3AF2Q3 Q3Q3S3S3Q3 S3Q3Q3S3Q3N2F2Q3 Q3 Q3I3Q3I3 Q3Q3F2Q3 Q3Q3Q3Q3 U4Q3Q3Q3 Q3Q3Q3Q3 E EN2 Q3L2Q3L2 EF2S3F2 Q3F2F2F2 F2S3Q3S3 F2S3Q3S3 Q3F2Q3F2 Q3V4Q3V4

PERSONS	A
EMPEDOCLES	A
PAUSANIAS a Physician	B
CALLICLES a young Harp player	C
	-
The Scene of the Poem is on Mount Etna at first in the forest region	B
afterwards on the summit of the mountain	B
	-
	-
	-
ACT I SCENE I	D
	-
A Pass in the forest region of Etna Morning	E
	-
CALLICLES	A
	-
Alone resting on a rock by the path	F
	-
THE MULES I think will not be here this hour	C
They feel the cool wet turf under their feet	G
By the stream side after the dusty lanes	A
In which they have toil'd all night from Catana	B
And scarcely will they budge a yard O Pan	B
How gracious is the mountain at this hour	C
A thousand times have I been here alone	B
Or with the revellers from the mountain towns	A
But never on so fair a morn the sun	B
Is shining on the brilliant mountain crests	A
And on the highest pines but further down	B
Hero in the valley is in shade the sward	H
Is dark and on the stream the mist still hangs	A
One sees one's foot prints crush'd in the wet grass	A
One's breath curls in the air and on these pines	A
That climb from the stream's edge the long grey tufts	A
Which the goats love are jewell'd thick with dew	I
Here will I stay till the slow litter comes	A
I have my harp too that is well Apollo	J
What mortal could be sick or sorry here	K
I know not in what mind Empedocles	A
Whose mules I follow'd may be coming up	L
But if as most men say he is half mad	M
With exile and with brooding on his wrongs	A
Pausanias his sage friend who mounts with him	N
Could scarce have lighted on a lovelier cure	O
The mules must be below far down I hear	K
Their tinkling bells mix'd with the song of birds	A
Rise faintly to me now it stops Who's here	K
Pausanias and on foot alone	B
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
And thou then	B
I left thee supping with Peisianax	A
With thy head full of wine and thy hair crown'd	P
Touching thy harp as the whim came on thee	Q
And prais'd and spoil'd by master and by guests	A
Almost as much as the new dancing girl	R
Why hast thou follow'd us	A
	-
CALLICLES	A
	-
The night was hot	S
And the feast past its prime so we slipp'd out	T
Some of us to the portico to breathe	U
Peisianax thou know'st drinks late and then	B
As I was lifting my soil'd garland off	V
I saw the mules and litter in the court	W
And in the litter sate Empedocles	A
Thou too wert with him Straightway I sped home	X
I saddled my white mule and all night long	Y
Through the cool lovely country follow'd you	I
Pass'd you a little since as morning dawn'd	Z
And have this hour sate by the torrent here	K
Till the slow mules should climb in sight again	B
And now'	B
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
And now back to the town with speed	A2
Crouch in the wood first till the mules have pass'd	B2
They do but halt they will be here anon	B
Thou must be viewless to Empedocles	A
Save mine he must not meet a human eye	D
One of his moods is on him that thou know'st	G
I think thou would'st not vex him	N
	-
CALLICLES	A
	-
No and yet	C2
I would fain stay and help thee tend him once	A
He knew me well and would oft notice me	Q
And still I know not how he draws me to him	N
And I could watch him with his proud sad face	A
His flowing locks and gold encircled brow	D2
And kingly gait for ever such a spell	E2
In his severe looks such a majesty	Q
As drew of old the people after him	N
In Agrigentum and Olympia	F2
When his star reign'd before his banishment	G2
Is potent still on me in his decline	B
But oh Pausanias he is changed of late	H2
There is a settled trouble in his air	I2
Admits no momentary brightening now	D2
And when he comes among his friends at feasts	A
'Tis as an orphan among prosperous boys	A
Thou know'st of old he loved this harp of mine	B
When first he sojourn'd with Peisianax	A
He is now always moody and I fear him	N
But I would serve him soothe him if I could	J2
Dared one but try	D
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
Thou wert a kind child ever	C
He loves thee but he must not see thee now	D2
Thou hast indeed a rare touch on thy harp	K2
He loves that in thee too there was a time	L2
But that is pass'd he would have paid thy strain	B
With music to have drawn the stars from heaven	B
He has his harp and laurel with him still	M2
But he has laid the use of music by	D
And all which might relax his settled gloom	N2
Yet thou may'st try thy playing if thou wilt	O2
But thou must keep unseen follow us on	B
But at a distance in these solitudes	A
In this clear mountain air a voice will rise	A
Though from afar distinctly it may soothe him	N
Play when we halt and when the evening comes	A
And I must leave him for his pleasure is	A
To be left musing these soft nights alone	B
In the high unfrequented mountain spots	A
Then watch him for he ranges swift and far	P2
Sometimes to Etna's top and to the cone	B
But hide thee in the rocks a great way down	B
And try thy noblest strains my Callicles	A
With the sweet night to help thy harmony	Q
Thou wilt earn my thanks sure and perhaps his	A
	-
CALLICLES	A
	-
More than a day and night Pausanias	A
Of this fair summer weather on these hills	A
Would I bestow to help Empedocles	A
That needs no thanks one is far better here	K
Than in the broiling city in these heats	A
But tell me how hast thou persuaded him	N
In this his present fierce man hating mood	Q2
To bring thee out with him alone on Etna	F2
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
Thou hast heard all men speaking of Pantheia	U
The woman who at Agrigentum lay	R2
Thirty long days in a cold trance of death	U
And whom Empedocles call'd back to life	S2
Thou art too young to note it but his power	C
Swells with the swelling evil of this time	L2
And holds men mute to see where it will rise	A
He could stay swift diseases in old days	A
Chain madmen by the music of his lyre	T2
Cleanse to sweet airs the breath of poisonous streams	A
And in the mountain chinks inter the winds	A
This he could do of old but now since all	U2
Clouds and grows daily worse in Sicily	Q
Since broils tear us in twain since this new swarm	V2
Of sophists has got empire in our schools	A
Where he was paramount since he is banish'd	W2
And lives a lonely man in triple gloom	N2
He grasps the very reins of life and death	U
I ask'd him of Pantheia yesterday	R2
When we were gather'd with Peisianax	A
And he made answer I should come at night	X2
On Etna here and be alone with him	N
And he would tell me as his old tried friend	Y2
Who still was faithful what might profit me	Q
That is the secret of this miracle	Z2
	-
CALLICLES	A
	-
Bah Thou a doctor Thou art superstitious	A
Simple Pausanias 'twas no miracle	Z2
Pantheia for I know her kinsmen well	E2
Was subject to these trances from a girl	R
Empedocles would say so did he deign	B
But he still lets the people whom he scorns	A
Gape and cry wizard at him if they list	A3
But thou thou art no company for him	N
Thou art as cross as soured as himself	B3
Thou hast some wrong from thine own citizens	A
And then thy friend is banish'd and on that	C3
Straightway thou fallest to arraign the times	A
As if the sky was impious not to fall	U2
The sophists are no enemies of his	A
I hear Gorgias their chief speaks nobly of him	N
As of his gifted master and once friend	Y2
He is too scornful too high wrought too bitter	C
'Tis not the times 'tis not the sophists vex him	N
There is some root of suffering in himself	B3
Some secret and unfollow'd vein of woe	J
Which makes the time look black and sad to him	N
Pester him not in this his sombre mood	Q2
With questionings about an idle tale	D3
But lead him through the lovely mountain paths	A
And keep his mind from preying on itself	B3
And talk to him of things at hand and common	B
Not miracles thou art a learned man	B
But credulous of fables as a girl	R
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
And thou a boy whose tongue outruns his knowledge	E3
And on whose lightness blame is thrown away	R2
Enough of this I see the litter wind	F3
Up by the torrent side under the pines	A
I must rejoin Empedocles Do thou	U
Crouch in the brush wood till the mules have pass'd	B2
Then play thy kind part well Farewell till night	X2
	-
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SCENE II	D
	-
Noon A Glen on the highest skirts of the woody	Q
region of Etna	F2
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EMPEDOCLES PAUSANIAS	A
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
The noon is hot when we have cross'd the stream	G3
We shall have left the woody tract and come	H3
Upon the open shoulder of the hill	M2
See how the giant spires of yellow bloom	N2
Of the sun loving gentian in the heat	G
Are shining on those naked slopes like flame	I3
Let us rest here and now Empedocles	A
Pantheia's history A harp note below is heard	J3
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
Hark what sound was that	C3
Rose from below If it were possible	Z2
And we were not so far from human haunt	K3
I should have said that some one touch'd a harp	K2
Hark there again	B
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
'Tis the boy Callicles	A
The sweetest harp player in Catana	B
He is for ever coming on these hills	A
In summer to all country festivals	A
With a gay revelling band he breaks from them	L3
Sometimes and wanders far among the glens	A
But heed him not he will not mount to us	A
I spoke with him this morning Once more therefore	M3
Instruct me of Pantheia's story Master	C
As I have pray'd thee	Q
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
That and to what end	Y2
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PAUSANIAS	A
	-
It is enough that all men speak of it	N3
But I will also say that when the Gods	A
Visit us as they do with sign and plague	O3
To know those spells of time that stay their hand	P3
Were to live free from terror	C
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
Spells Mistrust them	L3
Mind is the spell which governs earth and heaven	B
Man has a mind with which to plan his safety	Q
Know that and help thyself	B3
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
But thy own words	A
'The wit and counsel of man was never clear	Q3
Troubles confuse the little wit he has '	-
Mind is a light which the Gods mock us with	U
To lead those false who trust it	N3
The harp sounds again	B
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
Hist once more	M3
Listen Pausanias Aye 'tis Callicles	A
I know those notes among a thousand Hark	R3
	-
CALLICLES	A
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Sings unseen from below	J
The track winds down to the clear stream	G3
To cross the sparkling shallows there	I2
The cattle love to gather on their way	R2
To the high mountain pastures and to stay	R2
Till the rough cow herds drive them past	B2
Knee deep in the cool ford for 'tis the last	B2
Of all the woody high well water'd dells	A
On Etna and the beam	G3
Of noon is broken there by chestnut boughs	A
Down its steep verdant sides the air	I2
Is freshen'd by the leaping stream which throws	A
Eternal showers of spray on the moss'd roots	A
Of trees and veins of turf and long dark shoots	A
Of ivy plants and fragrant hanging bells	A
Of hyacinths and on late anemonies	A
That muffle its wet banks but glade	S3
And stream and sward and chestnut trees	A
End here Etna beyond in the broad glare	I2
Of the hot noon without a shade	S3
Slope behind slope up to the peak lies bare	I2
The peak round which the white clouds play	R2
In such a glen on such a day	R2
On Pelion on the grassy ground	P
Chiron the aged Centaur lay	R2
The young Achilles standing by	D
The Centaur taught him to explore	M3
The mountains where the glens are dry	D
And the tired Centaurs come to rest	T3
And where the soaking springs abound	P
And the straight ashes grow for spears	A
And where the hill goats come to feed	A2
And the sea eagles build their nest	T3
He show'd him Phthia far away	R2
And said O boy I taught this lore	M3
To Peleus in long distant years	A
He told him of the Gods the stars	A
The tides and then of mortal wars	A
And of the life which heroes lead	U3
Before they reach the Elysian place	A
And rest in the immortal mead	A2
And all the wisdom of his race	A
The music below ceases and EMPEDOCLES speaks	A
accompanying himself in a solemn manner	C
on his harp	K2
The out spread world to span	B
A cord the Gods first slung	V3
And then the soul of man	B
There like a mirror hung	V3
And bade the winds through space impel the gusty toy	W3
Hither and thither spins	A
The wind borne mirroring soul	X3
A thousand glimpses wins	A
And never sees a whole	X3
Looks once and drives elsewhere and leaves its last employ	W3
	-
The Gods laugh in their sleeve	B3
To watch man doubt and fear	Q3
Who knows not what to believe	B3
Since he sees nothing clear	Q3
And dares stamp nothing false where he finds nothing sure	O
	-
Is this Pausanias so	A
And can our souls not strive	B3
But with the winds must go	A
And hurry where they drive	B3
Is Fate indeed so strong man's strength indeed so poor	Y3
	-
I will not judge that man	B
Howbeit I judge as lost	Z3
Whose mind allows a plan	B
Which would degrade it most	A4
And he treats doubt the best who tries to see least ill	M2
	-
Be not then fear's blind slave	B3
Thou art my friend to thee	Q
All knowledge that I have	B3
All skill I wield are free	Q
Ask not the latest news of the last miracle	Z2
	-
Ask not what days and nights	A
In trance Pantheia lay	R2
But ask how thou such sights	A
May'st see without dismay	R2
Ask what most helps when known thou son of Anchitus	A
	-
What hate and awe and shame	I3
Fill thee to see our world	B4
Thou feelest thy soul's frame	I3
Shaken and rudely hurl'd	B4
What life and time go hard with thee too as with us	A
	-
Thy citizens 'tis said	U3
Envy thee and oppress	A
Thy goodness no men aid	S3
All strive to make it less	A
Tyranny pride and lust fill Sicily's abodes	A
	-
Heaven is with earth at strife	B3
Signs make thy soul afraid	S3
The dead return to life	B3
Rivers are dried winds stay'd	S3
Scarce can one think in calm so threatening are the Gods	A
	-
And we feel day and night	X2
The burden of ourselves	A
Well then the wiser wight	X2
In his own bosom delves	A
And asks what ails him so and gets what cure he can	B
	-
The sophist sneers Fool take	C4
Thy pleasure right or wrong	Y
The pious wail Forsake	C4
A world these sophists throng	Y
Be neither saint nor sophist led but be a man	B
	-
These hundred doctors try	D
To preach thee to their school	D4
We have the truth they cry	D
And yet their oracle	Z2
Trumpet it as they will is but the same as thine	B
	-
Once read thy own breast right	X2
And thou hast done with fears	A
Man gets no other light	X2
Search he a thousand years	A
Sink in thyself there ask what ails thee at that shrine	B
	-
What makes thee struggle and rave	B3
Why are men ill at ease	A
'Tis that the lot they have	B3
Fails their own will to please	A
For man would make no murmuring were his will obey'd	S3
	-
And why is it that still	M2
Man with his lot thus fights	A
'Tis that he makes this will	M2
The measure of his rights	A
And believes Nature outraged if his will's gainsaid	S3
	-
Couldst thou Pausanias learn	B
How deep a fault is this	A
Couldst thou but once discern	B
Thou hast no right to bliss	A
No title from the Gods to welfare and repose	A
	-
Then thou wouldst look less mazed	S3
Whene'er from bliss debarr'd	S3
Nor think the Gods were crazed	S3
When thy own lot went hard	S3
But we are all the same the fools of our own woes	A
	-
For from the first faint morn	B
Of life the thirst for bliss	A
Deep in man's heart is born	B
And sceptic as he is	A
He fails not to judge clear if this be quench'd or no	A
	-
Nor is that thirst to blame	I3
Man errs not that he deems	A
His welfare his true aim	I3
He errs because he dreams	A
The world does but exist that welfare to bestow	A
	-
We mortals are no kings	A
For each of whom to sway	R2
A new made world up springs	A
Meant merely for his play	R2
No we are strangers here the world is from of old	S3
	-
In vain our pent wills fret	S3
And would the world subdue	S3
Limits we did not set	S3
Condition all we do	S3
Born into life we are and life must be our mould	S3
	-
Born into life man grows	A
Forth from his parents' stem	L3
And blends their bloods as those	A
Of theirs are blent in them	L3
So each new man strikes root into a far fore time	L2
	-
Born into life we bring	E
A bias with us here	K
And when here each new thing	E
Affects us we come near	Q3
To tunes we did not call our being must keep chime	L2
	-
Born into life in vain	B
Opinions those or these	A
Unalter'd to retain	B
The obstinate mind decrees	A
Experience like a sea soaks all effacing in	B
	-
Born into life who lists	A
May what is false hold dear	Q3
And for himself make mists	A
Through which to see less clear	Q3
The world is what it is for all our dust and din	B
	-
Born into life 'tis we	Q
And not the world are new	S3
Our cry for bliss our plea	Q
Others have urged it too	S3
Our wants have all been felt our errors made before	M3
	-
No eye could be too sound	S3
To observe a world so vast	S3
No patience too profound	S3
To sort what's here amass'd	S3
How man may here best live no care too great to explore	M3
	-
But we as some rude guest	S3
Would change where'er he roam	X
The manners there profess'd	S3
To those he brings from home	X
We mark not the world's course but would have it take ours	A
	-
The world's course proves the terms	A
On which man wins content	S3
Reason the proof confirms	A
We spurn it and invent	S3
A false course for the world and for ourselves false powers	A
	-
Riches we wish to get	S3
Yet remain spendthrifts still	M2
We would have health and yet	S3
Still use our bodies ill	M2
Bafflers of our own prayers from youth to life's last scenes	A
	-
We would have inward peace	A
Yet will not look within	B
We would have misery cease	A
Yet will not cease from sin	B
We want all pleasant ends but will use no harsh means	A
	-
We do not what we ought	S3
What we ought not we do	S3
And loan upon the thought	S3
That chance will bring us through	S3
But our own acts for good or ill are mightier powers	A
	-
Yet even when man forsakes	A
All sin is just is pure	O
Abandons all which makes	A
His welfare insecure	C
Other existences there are that clash with ours	A
	-
Like us the lightning fires	A
Love to have scope and play	R2
The stream like us desires	A
An unimpeded way	R2
Like us the Libyan wind delights to roam at large	E4
	-
Streams will not curb their pride	S3
The just man not to entomb	N2
Nor lightnings go aside	S3
To leave his virtues room	N2
Nor is that wind less rough which blows a good man's barge	E4
	-
Nature with equal mind	S3
Sees all her sons at play	R2
Sees man control the wind	S3
The wind sweep man away	R2
Allows the proudly riding and the founder'd bark	R3
	-
And lastly though of ours	A
No weakness spoil our lot	S3
Though the non human powers	A
Of Nature harm us not	S3
The ill deeds of other men make often our life dark	R3
	-
What were the wise man's plan	B
Through this sharp toil set life	B3
To fight as best he can	B
And win what's won by strife	B3
But we an easier way to cheat our pains have found	S3
	-
Scratch'd by a fall with moans	A
As children of weak age	F4
Lend life to the dumb stones	A
Whereon to vent their rage	F4
And bend their little fists and rate the senseless ground	S3
	-
So loath to suffer mute	S3
We peopling the void air	I2
Make Gods to whom to impute	S3
The ills we ought to bear	I2
With God and Fate to rail at suffering easily	Q
	-
Yet grant as sense long miss'd	S3
Things that are now perceiv'd	S3
And much may still exist	S3
Which is not yet believ'd	S3
Grant that the world were full of Gods we cannot see	Q
	-
All things the world which fill	M2
Of but one stuff are spun	B
That we who rail are still	M2
With what we rail at one	B
One with the o'er labour'd Power that through the breadth and length	U
	-
Of earth and air and sea	Q
In men and plants and stones	A
Hath toil perpetually	Q
And struggles pants and moans	A
Fain would do all things well but sometimes fails in strength	U
	-
And patiently exact	S3
This universal God	S3
Alike to any act	S3
Proceeds at any nod	S3
And quietly declaims the cursings of himself	B3
	-
This is not what man hates	A
Yet he can curse but this	A
Harsh Gods and hostile Fates	A
Are dreams this only is	A
Is everywhere sustains the wise the foolish elf	B3
	-
Nor only in the intent	S3
To attach blame elsewhere	I2
Do we at will invent	S3
Stern Powers who make their care	I2
To embitter human life malignant Deities	A
	-
But next we would reverse	A
The scheme ourselves have spun	B
And what we made to curse	A
We now would lean upon	B
And feign kind Gods who perfect what man vainly tries	A
	-
Look the world tempts our eye	D
And we would know it all	U2
We map the starry sky	D
We mine this earthen ball	U2
We measure the sea tides we number the sea sands	A
	-
We scrutinize the dates	A
Of long past human things	A
The bounds of effac'd states	A
The lines of deceas'd kings	A
We search out dead men's words and works of dead men's hands	A
	-
We shut our eyes and amuse	A
How our own minds are made	S3
What springs of thought they use	A
How righten'd how betray'd	S3
And spend our wit to name what most employ unnam'd	S3
	-
But still as we proceed	S3
The mass swells more and more	M3
Of volumes yet to read	S3
Of secrets yet to explore	M3
Our hair grows grey our eyes are dimm'd our heat is tamed	S3
	-
We rest our faculties	A
And thus address the Gods	A
'True science if there is	A
It stays in your abodes	A
Man's measures cannot mete the immeasurable All	U2
	-
'You only can take in	B
The world's immense design	B
Our desperate search was sin	B
Which henceforth we resign	B
Sure only that your mind sees all things which befall '	-
	-
Fools that in man's brief term	G4
He cannot all things view	S3
Affords no ground to affirm	G4
That there are Gods who do	S3
Nor does being weary prove that he has where to rest	S3
	-
Again our youthful blood	S3
Claims rapture as its right	S3
The world a rolling flood	S3
Of newness and delight	S3
Draws in the enamour'd gazer to its shining breast	S3
	-
Pleasure to our hot grasp	H4
Gives flowers after flowers	A
With passionate warmth we clasp	H4
Hand after hand in ours	A
Nor do we soon perceive how fast our youth is spent	S3
	-
At once our eyes grow clear	Q3
We see in blank dismay	R2
Year posting after year	Q3
Sense after sense decay	R2
Our shivering heart is mined by secret discontent	S3
	-
Yet still in spite of truth	U
In spite of hopes entomb'd	S3
That longing of our youth	U
Burns ever unconsum'd	S3
Still hungrier for delight as delights grow more rare	I2
	-
We pause we hush our heart	S3
And then address the Gods	A
'The world hath fail'd to impart	S3
The joy our youth forbodes	A
Fail'd to fill up the void which in our breasts we bear	I2
	-
'Changeful till now we still	M2
Look'd on to something new	S3
Let us with changeless will	M2
Henceforth look on to you	S3
To find with you the joy we in vain here require '	-
	-
Fools that so often here	K
Happiness mock'd our prayer	I2
I think might make us fear	Q3
A like event elsewhere	I2
Make us not fly to dreams but moderate desire	C
	-
And yet for those who know	A
Themselves who wisely take	C4
Their way through life and bow	U
To what they cannot break	C4
Why should I say that life need yield but moderate bliss	A
	-
Shall we with temper spoil'd	S3
Health sapp'd by living ill	M2
And judgement all embroil'd	S3
By sadness and self will	M2
Shall we judge what for man is not true bliss or is	A
	-
Is it so small a thing	E
To have enjoy'd the sun	B
To have lived light in the spring	E
To have loved to have thought to have done	B
To have advanc'd true friends and beat down baffling foes	A
	-
That we must feign a bliss	A
Of doubtful future date	S3
And while we dream on this	A
Lose all our present state	S3
And relegate to worlds yet distant our repose	A
	-
Not much I know you prize	A
What pleasures may be had	S3
Who look on life with eyes	A
Estrang'd like mine and sad	S3
And yet the village churl feels the truth more than you	S3
	-
Who's loath to leave this life	B3
Which to him little yields	A
His hard task'd sunburnt wife	B3
His often labour'd fields	A
The boors with whom he talk'd the country spots he knew	S3
	-
But thou because thou hear'st	S3
Men scoff at Heaven and Fate	S3
Because the Gods thou fear'st	S3
Fail to make blest thy state	S3
Tremblest and wilt not dare to trust the joys there are	P2
	-
I say Fear not Life still	M2
Leaves human effort scope	I4
But since life teems with ill	M2
Nurse no extravagant hope	I4
Because thou must not dream thou need'st not then despair	I2
	-
A long pause At the end of it the notes of a	F2
harp below are again heard and CALLICLES	A
sings	A
	-
Far far from here	K
The Adriatic breaks in a warm bay	R2
Among the green Illyrian hills and there	I2
The sunshine in the happy glens is fair	I2
And by the sea and in the brakes	A
The grass is cool the sea side air	I2
Buoyant and fresh the mountain flowers	A
As virginal and sweet as ours	A
And there they say two bright and aged snakes	A
Who once were Cadmus and Harmonia	F2
Bask in the glens or on the warm sea shore	M3
In breathless quiet after all their ills	A
Nor do they see their country nor the place	A
Where the Sphinx lived among the frowning hills	A
Nor the unhappy palace of their race	A
Nor Thebes nor the Ismenus any more	M3
	-
There those two live far in the Illyrian brakes	A
They had stay'd long enough to see	A
In Thebes the billow of calamity	A
Over their own dear children roll'd	S3
Curse upon curse pang upon pang	J4
For years they sitting helpless in their home	X
A grey old man and woman yet of old	S3
The Gods had to their marriage come	H3
And at the banquet all the Muses sang	J4
	-
Therefore they did not end their days	A
In sight of blood but were rapt far away	R2
To where the west wind plays	A
And murmurs of the Adriatic come	H3
To those untrodden mountain lawns and there	I2
Placed safely in changed forms the Pair	I2
Wholly forget their first sad life and home	X
And all that Theban woe and stray	R2
For ever through the glens placid and dumb	H3
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
That was my harp player again where is he	A
Down by the stream	G3
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
Yes Master in the wood	S3
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
He ever loved the Theban story well	E2
But the day wears Go now Pausanias	A
For I must be alone Leave me one mule	D4
Take down with thee the rest to Catana	F2
And for young Callicles thank him from me	A
Tell him I never fail'd to love his lyre	T2
But he must follow me no more tonight	S3
	-
PAUSANIAS	A
	-
Thou wilt return to morrow to the city	A
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
Either to morrow or some other day	R2
In the sure revolutions of the world	S3
Good friend I shall revisit Catana	F2
I have seen many cities in my time	L2
Till my eyes ache with the long spectacle	Z2
And I shall doubtless see them all again	F2
Thou know'st me for a wanderer from of old	S3
Meanwhile stay me not now Farewell Pausanias	A
He departs on his way up the mountain	F2
	-
PAUSANIAS alone	F2
	-
I dare not urge him further he must go	A
But he is strangely wrought I will speed back	K4
And bring Peisianax to him from the city	A
His counsel could once soothe him But Apollo	A
How his brow lighten'd as the music rose	A
Callicles must wait here and play to him	N
I saw him through the chestnuts far below	A
Just since down at the stream Ho Callicles	A
He descends calling	E
	-
	-
	-
ACT II	D
	-
Evening The Summit of Etna	F2
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
Alone	F2
On this charr'd blacken'd melancholy waste	S3
Crown'd by the awful peak Etna's great mouth	U
Round which the sullen vapour rolls alone	F2
Pausanias is far hence and that is well	E2
For I must henceforth speak no more with man	F2
He has his lesson too and that debt's paid	S3
And the good learned friendly quiet man	F2
May bravelier front his life and in himself	B3
Find henceforth energy and heart but I	D
The weary man the banish'd citizen	F2
Whose banishment is not his greatest ill	M2
Whose weariness no energy can reach	L4
And for whose hurt courage is not the cure	O
What should I do with life and living more	M3
	-
No thou art come too late Empedocles	A
And the world hath the day and must break thee	A
Not thou the world With men thou canst not live	B3
Their thoughts their ways their wishes are not thine	F2
And being lonely thou art miserable	Z2
For something has impair'd thy spirit's strength	U
And dried its self sufficing fount of joy	W3
Thou canst not live with men nor with thyself	B3
Oh sage oh sage Take then the one way left	S3
And turn thee to the elements thy friends	A
Thy well tried friends thy willing ministers	A
And say Ye servants hear Empedocles	A
Who asks this final service at your hands	A
Before the sophist brood hath overlaid	S3
The last spark of man's consciousness with words	A
Ere quite the being of man ere quite the world	S3
Be disarray'd of their divinity	A
Before the soul lose all her solemn joys	A
And awe be dead and hope impossible	Z2
And the soul's deep eternal night come on	F2
Receive me hide me quench me take me home	X
He advances to the edge of the crater Smoke	M4
and fire break forth with a loud noise and	S3
CALLICLES is heard below singing	E
	-
The lyre's voice is lovely everywhere	I2
In the court of Gods in the city of men	F2
And in the lonely rock strewn mountain glen	F2
In the still mountain air	I2
	-
Only to Typho it sounds hatefully	Z2
To Typho only the rebel o'erthrown	F2
Through whose heart Etna drives her roots of stone	F2
To imbed them in the sea	A
	-
Wherefore dost thou groan so loud	S3
Wherefore do thy nostrils flash	N4
Through the dark night suddenly	A
Typho such red jets of flame	I3
Is thy tortur'd heart still proud	S3
Is thy fire scath'd arm still rash	N4
Still alert thy stone crush'd frame	I3
Doth thy fierce soul still deplore	M3
The ancient rout by the Cilician hills	A
And that curst treachery on the Mount of Gore	M3
Do thy bloodshot eyes still see	A
The fight that crown'd thy ills	A
Thy last defeat in this Sicilian sea	A
Hast thou sworn in thy sad lair	I2
Where east the strong sea currents suck'd thee down	F2
Never to cease to writhe and try to sleep	O4
Letting the sea stream wander through thy hair	I2
That thy groans like thunder deep	O4
Begin to roll and almost drown	F2
The sweet notes whose lulling spell	Z2
Gods and the race of mortals love so well	Z2
When through thy eaves thou hearest music swell	Z2
	-
But an awful pleasure bland	S3
Spreading o'er the Thunderer's face	A
When the sound climbs near his seat	S3
The Olympian council sees	A
As he lets his lax right hand	S3
Which the lightnings doth embrace	A
Sink upon his mighty knees	A
And the eagle at the beck	P4
Of the appeasing gracious harmony	A
Droops all his sheeny brown deep feather'd neck	P4
Nestling nearer to Jove's feet	S3
While o'er his sovereign eye	D
The curtains of the blue films slowly meet	S3
And the white Olympus peaks	A
Rosily brighten and the sooth'd Gods smile	Z2
At one another from their golden chairs	A
And no one round the charm d circle speaks	A
Only the loved Hebe bears	A
The cup about whose draughts beguile	Z2
Pain and care with a dark store	M3
Of fresh pull'd violets wreath'd and nodding o'er	C
And her flush'd feet glow on the marble floor	M3
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
He fables yet speaks truth	U
The brave impetuous heart yields everywhere	I2
To the subtle contriving head	S3
Great qualities are trodden down	F2
And littleness united	S3
Is become invincible	Z2
	-
These rumblings are not Typho's groans I know	F2
These angry smoke bursts	A
Are not the passionate breath	U
Of the mountain crush'd tortur'd intractable Titan king	E
But overall the world	S3
What suffering is there not seen	F2
Of plainness oppress'd by cunning	E
As the well counsell'd Zeus oppress'd	S3
The self helping son of earth	U
What anguish of greatness	A
Rail'd and hunted from the world	S3
Because its simplicity rebukes	A
This envious miserable age	F4
I am weary of it	S3
Lie there ye ensigns	A
Of my unloved pre eminence	A
In an age like this	A
Among a people of children	F2
Who throng'd me in their cities	A
Who worshipp'd me in their houses	A
And ask'd not wisdom	H3
But drugs to charm with	U
But spells to mutter	C
All the fool's armoury of magic Lie there	I2
My golden circlet	S3
My purple robe	Q4
	-
CALLICLES from below	F2
	-
As the sky brightening south wind clears the day	S3
And makes the mass'd clouds roll	Z2
The music of the lyre blows away	S3
The clouds that wrap the soul	Z2
	-
Oh that Fate had let me see	A
That triumph of the sweet persuasive lyre	T2
That famous final victory	A
When jealous Pan with Marsyas did conspire	C
	-
When from far Parnassus' side	S3
Young Apollo all the pride	S3
Of the Phrygian flutes to tame	I3
To the Phrygian highlands came	I3
Where the long green reed beds sway	S3
In the rippled waters grey	S3
Of that solitary lake	C4
Where Maeander's springs are born	F2
Where the ridg'd pine wooded roots	A
Of Messogis westward break	C4
Mounting westward high and higher	C
There was held the famous strife	B3
There the Phrygian brought his flutes	A
And Apollo brought his lyre	T2
And when now the westering sun	F2
Touch'd the hills the strife was done	F2
And the attentive Muses said	S3
'Marsyas thou art vanquish d '	-
Then Apollo's minister	C
Hang'd upon a branching fir	C
Marsyas that unhappy Faun	F2
And began to whet his knife	B3
But the Maenads who were there	I2
Left their friend and with robes flowing	E
In the wind and loose dark hair	I2
O'er their polish'd bosoms blowing	E
Each her ribbon'd tambourine	F2
Flinging on the mountain sod	S3
With a lovely frighten'd mien	F2
Came about the youthful God	S3
But he turn'd his beauteous face	A
Haughtily another way	S3
From the grassy sun warm'd place	A
Where in proud repose he lay	S3
With one arm over his head	S3
Watching how the whetting sped	S3
	-
But aloof on the lake strand	S3
Did the young Olympus stand	S3
Weeping at his master's end	S3
For the Faun had been his friend	S3
For he taught him how to sing	E
And he taught him flute playing	E
Many a morning had they gone	F2
To the glimmering mountain lakes	A
And had torn up by the roots	A
The tall crested water reeds	A
With long plumes and soft brown seeds	A
And had carved them into flutes	A
Sitting on a tabled stone	F2
Where the shoreward ripple breaks	A
And he taught him how to please	A
The red snooded Phrygian girls	A
Whom the summer evening sees	A
Flashing in the dance's whirls	A
Underneath the starlit trees	A
In the mountain villages	A
Therefore now Olympus stands	A
At his master's piteous cries	A
Pressing fast with both his hands	A
His white garment to his eyes	A
Not to see Apollo's scorn	F2
Ah poor Faun poor Faun ah poor Faun	F2
	-
EMPEDOCLES	A
	-
And lie thou there	I2
My laurel bough	U
Scornful Apollo's ensign lie thou there	I2
Though thou hast been my shade in the world's heat	S3
Though I have loved thee lived in honouring thee	A
Yet lie thou there	I2
My laurel bough	U
	-
I am weary of thee	A
I am weary of the solitude	S3
Where he who bears thee must abide	S3
Of the rocks of Parnassus	A
Of the gorge of Delphi	D
Of the moonlit peaks and the caves	A
Thou guardest them Apollo	F2
Over the grave of the slain Pytho	A
Though young intolerably severe	Q3
Thou keepest aloof the profane	F2
But the solitude oppresses thy votary	Q3
The jars of men reach him not in thy valley	A
But can life reach him	N
Thou fencest him from the multitude	S3
Who will fence him from himself	B3
He hears nothing but the cry of the torrents	A
And the beating of his own heart	S3
The air is thin the veins swell	Z2
The temples tighten and throb there	Q3
Air air	Q3
	-
Take thy bough set me free from my solitude	S3
I have been enough alone	F2
	-
Where shall thy votary fly then back to men	F2
But they will gladly welcome him once more	Q3
And help him to unbend his too tense thought	S3
And rid him of the presence of himself	B3
And keep their friendly chatter at his ear	Q3
And haunt him till the absence from himself	B3
That other torment grow unbearable	Z2
And he will fly to solitude again	F2
And he will find its air too keen for him	N
And so change back and many thousand times	A
Be miserably bandied to and fro	Q3
Like a sea wave betwixt the world and thee	A
Thou young implacable God and only death	A
Shall cut his oscillations short and so	Q3
Bring him to poise There is no other way	S3
	-
And yet what days were those Parmenides	Q3
When we were young when we could number friends	Q3
In all the Italian cities like ourselves	Q3
When with elated hearts we join'd your train	F2
Ye Sun born Virgins on the road of truth	A
Then we could still enjoy then neither thought	S3
Nor outward things were clos'd and dead to us	Q3
But we receiv'd the shock of mighty thoughts	Q3
On simple minds with a pure natural joy	W3
And if the sacred load oppress'd our brain	F2
We had the power to feel the pressure eased	S3
The brow unbound the thoughts flow free again	F2
In the delightful commerce of the world	S3
We had not lost our balance then nor grown	F2
Thought's slaves and dead to every natural joy	W3
The smallest thing could give us pleasure then	F2
The sports of the country people	Z2
A flute note from the woods	Q3
Sunset over the sea	Q3
Seed time and harvest	S3
The reapers in the corn	F2
The vinedresser in his vineyard	S3
The village girl at her wheel	Z2
	-
Fullness of life and power of feeling ye	Q3
Are for the happy for the souls at ease	Q3
Who dwell on a firm basis of content	S3
But he who has outliv'd his prosperous days	Q3
But he whose youth fell on a different world	S3
From that on which his exiled age is thrown	F2
Whose mind was fed on other food was train'd	S3
By other rules than are in vogue to day	S3
Whose habit of thought is fix'd who will not change	R4
But in a world he loves not must subsist	S3
In ceaseless opposition be the guard	S3
Of his own breast fetterd to what he guards	Q3
That the world win no mastery over him	N
Who has no friend no fellow left not one	F2
Who has no minute's breathing space allow'd	S3
To nurse his dwindling faculty of joy	W3
Joy and the outward world must die to him	N
As they are dead to me	Q3
A long pause during which EMPEDOCLES remains	Q3
motionless plunged in thought The night deepens	Q3
He moves forward and gazes round him and proceeds	Q3
	-
And you ye stars	Q3
Who slowly begin to marshal	Z2
As of old in the fields of heaven	F2
Your distant melancholy lines	Q3
Have you too survived yourselves	Q3
Are you too what I fear to become	H3
You too once lived	S3
You too moved joyfully	Q3
Among august companions	Q3
In an older world peopled by Gods	Q3
In a mightier order	Q3
The radiant rejoicing intelligent Sons of Heaven	F2
But now you kindle	Z2
Your lonely cold shining lights	Q3
Unwilling lingerers	Q3
In the heavenly wilderness	Q3
For a younger ignoble world	S3
And renew by necessity	Q3
Night after night your courses	Q3
In echoing unnear'd silence	Q3
Above a race you know not	S3
Uncaring and undelighted	S3
Without friend and without home	X
Weary like us though not	S3
Weary with our weariness	Q3
	-
No no ye stars there is no death with you	S3
No languor no decay Languor and death	A
They are with me not you ye are alive	B3
Ye and the pure dark ether where ye ride	S3
Brilliant above me And thou fiery world	S3
That sapp'st the vitals of this terrible mount	S3
Upon whose charr'd and quaking crust I stand	S3
Thou too brimmest with life the sea of cloud	S3
That heaves its white and billowy vapours up	L
To moat this isle of ashes from the world	S3
Lives and that other fainter sea far down	F2
O'er whose lit floor a road of moonbeams leads	Q3
To Etna's Lipar an sister fires	Q3
And the long dusky line of Italy	Q3
That mild and luminous floor of waters lives	Q3
With held in joy swelling its heart I only	Q3
Whose spring of hope is dried whose spirit has fail'd	S3
I who have not like these in solitude	S3
Maintain'd courage and force and in myself	B3
Nursed an immortal vigour I alone	F2
Am dead to life and joy therefore I read	S3
In all things my own deadness	Q3
A long silence He continues	Q3
	-
Oh that I could glow like this mountain	F2
Oh that my heart bounded with the swell of the sea	Q3
Oh that my soul were full of light as the stars	Q3
Oh that it brooded over the world like the air	Q3
	-
But no this heart will glow no more thou art	S3
A living man no more Empedocles	Q3
Nothing but a devouring flame of thought	S3
But a naked eternally restless mind	S3
After a pause	Q3
	-
To the elements it came from	H3
Everything will return	F2
Our bodies to earth	A
Our blood to water	Q3
Heat to fire	Q3
Breath to air	Q3
They were well born they will be well entomb'd	S3
But mind	S3
	-
And we might gladly share the fruitful stir	Q3
Down in our mother earth's miraculous womb	N2
Well might it be	Q3
With what roll'd of us in the stormy main	F2
We might have joy blent with the all bathing air	Q3
Or with the nimble radiant life of fire	Q3
	-
But mind but thought	S3
If these have been the master part of us	Q3
Where will they find their parent element	S3
What will receive them who will call them home	X
But we shall still be in them and they in us	Q3
And we shall be the strangers of the world	S3
And they will be our lords as they are now	U
And keep us prisoners of our consciousness	Q3
And never let us clasp and feel the All	Z2
But through their forms and modes and stifling veils	Q3
And we shall be unsatisfied as now	U
And we shall feel the agony of thirst	S3
The ineffable longing for the life of life	B3
Baffled for ever and still thought and mind	S3
Will hurry us with them on their homeless march	S4
Over the unallied unopening earth	A
Over the unrecognizing sea while air	Q3
Will blow us fiercely back to sea and earth	A
And fire repel us from its living waves	Q3
And then we shall unwillingly return	F2
Back to this meadow of calamity	Q3
This uncongenial place this human life	B3
And in our individual human state	S3
Go through the sad probation all again	F2
To see if we will poise our life at last	S3
To see if we will now at last be true	S3
To our own only true deep buried selves	Q3
Being one with which we are one with the whole world	S3
Or whether we will once more fall away	S3
Into some bondage of the flesh or mind	S3
Some slough of sense or some fantastic maze	Q3
Forg'd by the imperious lonely thinking power	Q3
And each succeeding age in which we are born	F2
Will have more peril for us than the last	S3
Will goad our senses with a sharper spur	Q3
Will fret our minds to an intenser play	S3
Will make ourselves harder to be discern'd	S3
And we shall struggle awhile gasp and rebel	Z2
And we shall fly for refuge to past times	Q3
Their soul of unworn youth their breath of greatness	Q3
And the reality will pluck us back	K4
Knead us in its hot hand and change our nature	Q3
And we shall feel our powers of effort flag	T4
And rally them for one last fight and fail	Z2
And we shall sink in the impossible strife	B3
And be astray for ever	Q3
Slave of sense	Q3
I have in no wise been but slave of thought	S3
And who can say I have been always free	Q3
Lived ever in the light of my own soul	Z2
I cannot I have lived in wrath and gloom	N2
Fierce disputatious ever at war with man	F2
Far from my own soul far from warmth and light	S3
But I have not grown easy in these bonds	Q3
But I have not denied what bonds these were	Q3
Yea I take myself to witness	Q3
That I have loved no darkness	Q3
Sophisticated no truth	A
Nursed no delusion	F2
Allow'd no fear	Q3
	-
And therefore O ye elements I know	Q3
Ye know it too it hath been granted me	Q3
Not to die wholly not to be all enslav'd	S3
I feel it in this hour The numbing cloud	S3
Mounts off my soul I feel it I breathe free	Q3
	-
Is it but for a moment	S3
Ah boil up ye vapours	Q3
Leap and roar thou sea of fire	Q3
My soul glows to meet you	S3
Ere it flag ere the mists	Q3
Of despondency and gloom	N2
Rush over it again	F2
Receive me Save me He plunges into the crater	Q3
	-
CALLICLES front below	Q3
	-
Through the black rushing smoke bursts	Q3
Thick breaks the red flame	I3
All Etna heaves fiercely	Q3
Her forest cloth'd frame	I3
	-
Not here O Apollo	Q3
Are haunts meet for thee	Q3
But where Helicon breaks down	F2
In cliff to the sea	Q3
	-
Where the moon silver'd inlets	Q3
Send far their light voice	Q3
Up the still vale of Thisbe	Q3
O speed and rejoice	Q3
	-
On the sward at the cliff top	U4
Lie strewn the white flocks	Q3
On the cliff side the pigeons	Q3
Roost deep in the rocks	Q3
	-
In the moonlight the shepherds	Q3
Soft lull'd by the rills	Q3
Lie wrapt in their blankets	Q3
Asleep on the hills	Q3
	-
What forms are these coming	E
So white through the gloom '	-
What garments out glistening	E
The gold flower'd broom	N2
	-
What sweet breathing presence	Q3
Out perfumes the thyme	L2
What voices enrapture	Q3
The night's balmy prime	L2
	-
'Tis Apollo comes leading	E
His choir the Nine	F2
The leader is fairest	S3
But all are divine	F2
	-
They are lost in the hollows	Q3
They stream up again	F2
What seeks on this mountain	F2
The glorified train	F2
	-
They bathe on this mountain	F2
In the spring by their road	S3
Then on to Olympus	Q3
Their endless abode	S3
	-
Whose praise do they mention	F2
Of what is it told	S3
What will be for ever	Q3
What was from of old	S3
	-
First hymn they the Father	Q3
Of all things and then	F2
The rest of immortals	Q3
The action of men	F2
	-
The day in his hotness	Q3
The strife with the palm	V4
The night in her silence	Q3
The stars in their calm	V4

Matthew Arnold

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