I heard a voice and a moan, A voice of the eastern seas: Hath she found not yet her ease? Speak, O agèd one. For I stood afar at the gate, And there came from within a cry, And wailing desolate. Ah, no more joy have I, For the griefs this house doth see, And the love it hath wrought in me. NURSE. There is no house! 'Tis gone. The lord Seeketh a prouder bed: and she Wastes in her chamber, not one word Will hear of care or charity. VOICE (_within_). O Zeus, O Earth, O Light, Will the fire not stab my brain? What profiteth living? Oh, Shall I not lift the slow Yoke, and let Life go, As a beast out in the night, To lie, and be rid of pain? CHORUS. _Some Women_ A. "O Zeus, O Earth, O Light:" The cry of a bride forlorn Heard ye, and wailing born Of lost delight? B. Why weariest thou this day, Wild heart, for the bed abhorrèd, The cold bed in the clay? Death cometh though no man pray, Ungarlanded, un-adorèd. Call him not thou. C. If another's arms be now Where thine have been, On his head be the sin: Rend not thy brow! D. All that thou sufferest, God seeth: Oh, not so sore Waste nor weep for the breast That was thine of yore. VOICE (_within_). Virgin of Righteousness, Virgin of hallowed Troth, Ye marked me when with an oath I bound him; mark no less That oath's end. Give me to see Him and his bride, who sought My grief when I wronged her not, Broken in misery, And all her house. . . . O God, My mother's home, and the dim Shore that I left for him, And the voice of my brother's blood. . . . NURSE. Oh, wild words! Did ye hear her cry To them that guard man's faith forsworn, Themis and Zeus? . . . This wrath new-born Shall make mad workings ere it die. CHORUS. _Other Women._ A. Would she but come to seek Our faces, that love her well, And take to her heart the spell Of words that speak? B. Alas for the heavy hate And anger that burneth ever! Would it but now abate, Ah God, I love her yet. And surely my love's endeavour Shall fail not here. C.