ORPHEUS. Or pleasureless shall we pass by The long cold night and leaden day, That song, and tale, and minstrelsy Shall make as merry as the May? THE SIRENS. List then, to-night, to some old tale Until the tears o'erflow thine eyes; But what shall all these things avail, When sad to-morrow comes and dies? ORPHEUS. And when the world is born again, And with some fair love, side by side, Thou wanderest 'twixt the sun and rain, In that fresh love-begetting tide; Then, when the world is born again, And the sweet year before thee lies, Shall thy heart think of coming pain, Or vex itself with memories? THE SIRENS. Ah! then the world is born again With burning love unsatisfied, And new desires fond and vain, And weary days from tide to tide. Ah! when the world is born again, A little day is soon gone by, When thou, unmoved by sun or rain, Within a cold straight house shalt lie. Therewith they ceased awhile, as languidly The head of Argo fell off toward the sea, And through the water she began to go, For from the land a fitful wind did blow, That, dallying with the many-coloured sail, Would sometimes swell it out and sometimes fail, As nigh the east side of the bay they drew; Then o'er the waves again the music flew. THE SIRENS. Think not of pleasure, short and vain. Wherewith, 'mid days of toil and pain, With sick and sinking hearts ye strive To cheat yourselves that ye may live With cold death ever close at hand; Think rather of a peaceful land, The changeless land where ye may be Roofed over by the changeful sea. ORPHEUS. And is the fair town nothing then, The coming of the wandering men With that long talked of thing and strange, And news of how the kingdoms change; The pointed hands, and wondering At doers of a desperate thing? Push on, for surely this shall be Across a narrow strip of sea. THE SIRENS. Alas! poor souls and timorous, Will ye draw nigh to gaze at us And see if we are fair indeed, For such as we shall be your meed, There, where our hearts would have you go. And where can the earth-dwellers show In any land such loveliness As that wherewith your eyes we bless, O wanderers of the Minyæ, Worn toilers over land and sea? ORPHEUS. Fair as the lightning thwart the sky, As sun-dyed snow upon the high Untrodden heaps of threatening stone The eagle looks upon alone, O fair as the doomed victim's wreath, O fair as deadly sleep and death, What will ye with them, earthly men, To mate your three-score years and ten? Toil rather, suffer and be free, Betwixt the green earth and the sea. THE SIRENS.