And the whizzing wheel stands still.

She steals to the window, and looks at the sand,
And over the sand at the sea;

And her eyes are set in a stare;
And anon there breaks a sigh,

And anon there drops a tear,

From a sorrow-clouded eye,
And a heart sorrow-laden,

A long, long sigh;

For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden

And the gleam of her golden hair.

Come away, away children;
Come children, come down!
The hoarse wind blows coldly;
Lights shine in the town.

She will start from her slumber
When gusts shake the door;
She will hear the winds howling,
Will hear the waves roar.
We shall see, while above us

The waves roar and whirl,

A ceiling of amber,

A pavement of pearl.

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Over banks of bright seaweed
The ebb-tide leaves dry.

We will gaze, from the sand-hills,

At the white, sleeping town;

At the church on the hill-side

And then come back down.

Singing: "There dwells a loved one,

But cruel is she!

She left lonely for ever

The kings of the sea."

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BROWNING.

A TRANSCRIPT FROM EURIPIDES.

THERE slept a silent palace in the sun,
With plains adjacent and Thessalian peace
Pherai, where King Admetos ruled the land.

"What now may mean the silence at the door?
Why is Admetos' mansion stricken dumb?
Not one friend near, to say if we should mourn
Our mistress dead, or if Alkestis lives
And sees the light still, Pelias' child to me
To all, conspicuously the best of wives
That ever was toward husband in this world!
Hears anyone or wail beneath the roof,
Or hands that strike each other, or the groan
Announcing all is done and naught to dread?
Still not a servant stationed at the gates!
O Paian, that thou would'st dispart the wave

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ΙΟ

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O' the woe, be present! Yet, had woe o'erwhelmed

The housemates, they were hardly silent thus:
It cannot be, the dead is forth and gone.

Whence comes thy gleam of hope? I dare not hope:

What is the circumstance that heartens thee?

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How could Admetos have dismissed a wife

So worthy, unescorted to the grave?

Before the gates I see no hallowed vase

Of fountain water, such as suits death's door;
Nor any clipt locks strew the vestibule,

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Though surely these drop when we grieve the dead,
Nor hand sounds smitten against youthful hand,

And yet

The women's way.
- the appointed time
How speak the word?—this day is even the day
Ordained her for departing from its light.
O touch calamitous to heart and soul!
Needs must one, when the good are tortured so,
Sorrow, one reckoned faithful from the first."

So wailed they, while a sad procession wound
Slow from the innermost o' the palace, stopped
At the extreme verge of the platform-front:
There opened, and disclosed Alkestis' self,
The consecrated lady, borne to look

Her last — and let the living look their last
She at the sun, we at Alkestis.

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"Sun, and thou light of day, and heavenly dance
O' the fleet cloud-figure!" (so her passion paused,
While the awe-stricken husband made his moan,
Muttered now this, now that ineptitude:

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Sun that sees thee and me, a suffering pair, Who did the Gods no wrong whence thou should'st die!") Then, as if caught up, carried in their course, Fleeting and free as cloud and sunbeam are, She missed no happiness that lay beneath : "O thou wide earth, from these my palace roofs, To distant nuptial chambers once my own

In that Iolkos of my ancestry!"

There the flight failed her.

Raise thee, wretched one!

Give us not up! Pray pity from the Gods!"

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Vainly Admetos: for "I see it - see

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The two-oared boat! The ferryer of the dead,
Charon, hand hard upon the boatman's-pole,

Calls me even now calls-Why delayest thou?
Quick! Thou obstructest all made ready here
For prompt departure: quick, then!""

A bitter voyage this to undergo,

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"Woe is me!

Even i' the telling! Adverse Powers above,
How do ye plague us!"

Then a shiver ran:

He has me

seest not? - hales me, - who is it?
To the hall o' the Dead -ah, who but Hades' self,
He, with the wings there, glares at me, one gaze,
All that blue brilliance, under the eyebrow!
What wilt thou do? Unhand me! Such a way

I have to traverse, all unhappy one!"

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Way

piteous to my friends, but, most of all, Me and thy children: ours assuredly

A common partnership in grief like this!"

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children, now

Whereat they closed about her; but Let be!
Leave, let me lie now! Strength forsakes my feet.
Hades is here, and shadowy on my eyes
Comes the night creeping. Children
Indeed, a mother is no more for you!
Farewell, O children, long enjoy the light!

"Ah me, the melancholy word I hear,
Oppressive beyond every kind of death!
No, by the Deities, take heart nor dare
To give me up· no, by our children too
Made orphans of! But rise, be resolute,
Since, thou departed, I no more remain!
For in thee are we bound up, to exist
Or cease to be- so we adore thy love!"

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Which brought out truth to judgment. At this word

And protestation, all the truth in her

Claimed to assert itself: she waved away

The blue-eyed, black-wing'd phantom, held in check

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The advancing pageantry of Hades there,

And, with no change in her own countenance,
She fixed her eyes on the protesting man,
And let her lips unlock their sentence,

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so!

Admetos, --how things go with me thou seest,

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I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what things

I wish should follow. Ito honor thee,