[_Persephone rises to her feet, and amidst a contrivance of confused darkness Hades is seen rushing from behind. He seizes her and drags her backward. Her basket is thrown up and the flowers scattered._] ACT II _CHORUS._ I (α) Bright day succeedeth unto day-- Night to pensive night-- 310 With his towering ray Of all-fathering light-- With the solemn trance Of her starry dance.-- Nought is new or strange In the eternal change.-- As the light clouds fly O'er the tree-tops high, So the days go by.-- Ripples that arrive 320 On the sunny shore, Dying to their live Music evermore.-- Like pearls on a thread,-- Like notes of a song,-- Like the measur'd tread Of a dancing throng.-- (β) Ocëanides are we, Nereids of the foam, But we left the sea 330 On the earth to roam With the fairest Queen That the world hath seen.-- Why amidst our play Was she sped away?-- Over hill and plain We have sought in vain; She comes not again.-- Not the Naiads knew On their dewy lawns:-- 340 Not the laughing crew Of the leaping Fauns.-- Now, since she is gone, All our dance is slow, All our joy is done, And our song is woe.-- II Saw ye the mighty Mother, where she went Searching the land? Nor night nor day resting from her lament, With smoky torch in hand. 350 Her godhead in the passion of a sorrow spent Which not her mind coud suffer, nor heart withstand?-- 2 Enlanguor'd like a fasting lioness, That prowls around Robb'd of her whelps, in fury comfortless Until her lost be found: Implacable and terrible in her wild distress; And thro' the affrighted country her roars resound.-- 3 But lo! what form is there? Thine eyes awaken! See! see! O say, 360 Is not that she, the furious, the forsaken? She cometh, lo! this way; Her golden-rippling hair upon her shoulders shaken, And all her visage troubled with deep dismay. _DEMETER_ (_entering_).