Page:Orion, an epic poem - Horne (1843, 3rd edition).djvu/100

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94
Orion.
[Book III.
Rhexergon and Biastor were abroad,
Searching the jasper quarries for a lynx
That had escaped the wreck. Deeply he sighed.
The quiet freshness came upon his heart,
Not sweetly, but with aching sense of loss.
He felt his way, and listened at the cave
Of Akinetos, whom he heard within
Sing to himself. And Akinetos rose,
Perceiving he was blind, and with slow care
Rolled forth a stone, and placed him by his side.

Orion's tale soon closed; its outward acts
And sad results, were all that he could speak:
The rest writhed inwardly, and,—like the leads
That sink the nets and all the struggles hide,
Till a strong hand drags forth the prize,—his words
Kept down the torment, uttered all within
In hurrying anguish. Yet the clear, cold eye,
Grey, quiet, steady, of the Great Unmoved,
Saw much of this beneath, and thus he spake.

"My son, why wouldst thou ever work and build,
And so bestir thyself, when certain grief,
Mischief, or error, and not seldom death,