III.
Yea, Jupiter; but in this mortal guise
Wooing as if he were a fair-faced boy!
Did I lack lovers? Was my beauty dulled,
The golden hair turned dross, the lithe limbs shrunk,
The wild heart tamed, that I should seethe my soul
In love, like any shepherd-girl?
That night
He swore to grant my wish; and then I cried,
"To see thee as thou art! O my beloved,
Beautiful, glorious one, to know thy face.
And sob my life out, close-claspt in thine arms!
Come in thy thunder—kill me with one fierce
Unveiled embrace!—Thine oath—Now, Earth! at last"—
IV.
The heavens shot one swift sheet of lurid flame—
The world crashed—from a body scathed and torn
My soul leaped through and found his breast, and died.
Died? So the Theban maidens think and laugh,
Saying, "She had her wish, that Semele!"
But sitting here, throned on Olympus' height,
I look back through yon oval ring of stars
To watch the far-off Earth, a twinkling speck—
Dust-mote, whirled up by the Sun's chariot wheel—
And pity their small hearts that hold a man
As if he were a god, or know the God—
Or dare to know him—only as a man!
O human love, art thou forever blind?
