The Knickerbocker Gallery/Orpheus in Hades

by William Pitt Palmer

Layout 2

 

W. P. Palmer

Orpheus in Hades.

 

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By W. P. Palmer.

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"Manesque adiit Regemque tremedum."—Virgil.

 

Is this awful presence real?
 This grim Pluto's dread domain?
Or not, rather, some ideal
 Phantom of a troubled brain?
Nay, it is no mocking vision
 Born of frenzied hope or fear,
And my heart with calm decision,
 Whispers, Minstrel, be of cheer!
 
Lo! the first of living mortals
 That e'er crossed the Stygian wave!
Do not spurn me from your portals,
 Hold not back the boon I crave!
By that queenly form beside thee,
 Rapt from Enna's flowery fold,
King of Hades, do not chide me
 If I seem unseemly bold!
 
Rocks and woods my footsteps follow,
 Wildest streams in silence stand,
When thy golden gift, Apollo,
 Melts in music to my hand
Shall its tones prove less enchanting
 Here, than in yon world above,
When its master, pale and panting,
 Pleads the cause of life and love?

Let me try what magic slumbers,
 Lyre, in thy melodious chords,
When to music's sweetest numbers
 Sorrow lends still sweeter words:
See! the Furies lean to listen,
 Atropos relenting hears;
Nay, e'en Pluto's stern eyes glisten;
 Proserpine's are drowned in tears!

Oh! how sweet your answer falleth
 On my spirit, rapt and still!
"Fate thy loved one's doom recalleth,
 Mortal, thou shalt have thy will:
She for whom thy soul is yearning,
 Sunward shall thy steps retrace;
But beware, the while, of turning
 Once to gaze upon her face!"

Shall I, then, again behold her,
 As in days so fondly blest?
Shall these widowed arms enfold her,
 These lorn lips to hers be prest?
Oh! the sad yet sweet confession
 Of a rapture so intense!
Silence were its best expression,
 Tears its truest eloquence!

See, yon golden gate discloses
 Glimpses of the blissful bowers,
Where immortal youth reposes,
 Crowned with amaranthine flowers;
And as SHE the threshold crosses,
 From the fields of asphodel
Comes a swell of spirit-voices,
 Softly murmuring, Fare thee well!

Kindly ones, your parting blessing
 Fate shall tenderly fulfill!
In my arms, caressed, caressing,
 She shall find Elysium still;
For wherever truth and duty
 Link the loving, heart to heart,
Your fair world in all its beauty
 Sees its perfect counterpart.

Grieve not, dearest, that thy lover
 Leads thee with averted face;
Once the Stygian bourne well over,
 How he 'll fly to thy embrace!
But till that dear consummation,
 Let the thought bring mutual cheer,
That in deepest obscuration
 Each to each is ever near.

Lo! already, faintly gleaming,
 Far Avernus dawns to sight!
Down whose dusky caverns streaming
 Glance the golden shafts of light:
As they brighter fall around thee,
 Fainter pleads my hapless vow;
Nay, though thousand oaths had bound me,
 I must see thee, here and now!

Fairest of all fairest faces,
 Oh! the rapture, once, once more,
To behold those dimpled graces
 Lovelier than e'er before!
But, alas, the hopes they waken
 Vanish like a frighted bird,
Ah! so soon to be forsaken
 By a bliss so long deferred!

Back, ye Gorgons, grimly glaring
 Where the rosy vision fled;
All your banded fury daring,
 I again will seek the dead!
Vain, vain boast! for ever vanished
 Is thy dream the loved to free;
By thine own blind passion vanished,
 Justest Fates, too, banish thee.

Yet ye have not all bereft me,
 Parcæ, spurned from Lethe's shore;
This dear solace still is left me,
 That I' ve seen her face once more!
And whatever hence betide me,
 That fair vision, day and night,
Like a cynosure shall guide me
 To her own blest Land of Light!

New-York, 1854.