Dark and of the dark impassioned Is this Pentheus' blood; yea, fashioned Of the Dragon, and his birth From Echîon, child of Earth. He is no man, but a wonder; Did the Earth-Child not beget him, As a red Giant, to set him Against God, against the Thunder? He will bind me for his prize, Me, the Bride of Dionyse; And my priest, my friend, is taken Even now, and buried lies; In the dark he lies forsaken! _All._ Lo, we race with death, we perish, Dionysus, here before thee! Dost thou mark us not, nor cherish, Who implore thee, and adore thee? Hither down Olympus' side, Come, O Holy One defied, Be thy golden wand uplifted o'er the tyrant in his pride! _A Maiden._ Oh, where art thou? In thine own Nysa, thou our help alone? O'er fierce beasts in orient lands Doth thy thronging thyrsus wave, By the high Corycian Cave, Or where stern Olympus stands; In the elm-woods and the oaken, There where Orpheus harped of old, And the trees awoke and knew him, And the wild things gathered to him, As he sang amid the broken Glens his music manifold? Blessed Land of Piërie, Dionysus loveth thee; He will come to thee with dancing, Come with joy and mystery; With the Maenads at his hest Winding, winding to the West; Cross the flood of swiftly glancing Axios in majesty; Cross the Lydias, the giver Of good gifts and waving green; Cross that Father-Stream of story, Through a land of steeds and glory Rolling, bravest, fairest River E'er of mortals seen! A VOICE WITHIN. Io! Io! Awake, ye damsels; hear my cry, Calling my Chosen; hearken ye! A MAIDEN. Who speaketh? Oh, what echoes thus? ANOTHER. A Voice, a Voice, that calleth us! THE VOICE. Be of good cheer! Lo, it is I, The Child of Zeus and Semelê. A MAIDEN. O Master, Master, it is Thou! ANOTHER. O Holy Voice, be with us now! THE VOICE. Spirit of the Chained Earthquake, Hear my word; awake, awake! [_An Earthquake suddenly shakes the pillars of the Castle._ A MAIDEN. Ha! what is coming? Shall the hall Of Pentheus racked in ruin fall? LEADER. Our God is in the house! Ye maids adore Him! CHORUS. We adore Him all! THE VOICE. Unveil the Lightning's eye; arouse The fire that sleeps, against this house! [_Fire leaps up on the Tomb of Semelê._ A MAIDEN. Ah, saw ye, marked ye there the flame From Semelê's enhallowed sod Awakened? Yea, the Death that came Ablaze from heaven of old, the same Hot splendour of the shaft of God?