Ah lady, lady, leave the creeping mist,
And leave the iron castle by the sea!
ELLE.
Nay, from the sea there came a ghost that kissed
My lips, and so I cannot come to thee!
LUI.
Ah lady, leave the cruel landward wind
That crusts the blighted flowers with bitter foam!
ELLE.
Nay, for his arms are cold and strong to bind,
And I must dwell with him and make my home!
LUI.
Come, for the Spring is fair in Joyous Guard
And down deep alleys sweet birds sing again.
ELLE.
But I must tarry with the winter hard,
And with the bitter memory of pain,
Although the Spring be fair in Joyous Guard,
And in the gardens glad birds sing again!
PISIDICE
The incident is from the Love Stories of Parthenius, who preserved
fragments of a lost epic on the expedition of Achilles against
Lesbos, an island allied with Troy.
The daughter of the Lesbian king
Within her bower she watched the war,
Far off she heard the arrows ring,
The smitten harness ring afar;
And, fighting from the foremost car,
Saw one that smote where all must flee;
More fair than the Immortals are
He seemed to fair Pisidice!
She saw, she loved him, and her heart
Before Achilles, Peleus' son,
Threw all its guarded gates apart,
A maiden fortress lightly won!
And, ere that day of fight was done,
No more of land or faith recked she,
But joyed in her new life begun, -
Her life of love, Pisidice!
She took a gift into her hand,
As one that had a boon to crave;
She stole across the ruined land
Where lay the dead without a grave,
And to Achilles' hand she gave
Her gift, the secret postern's key.
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