Orpheus and Other Poems

Book excerpt: Unto the realm of Pluto many roads Lead with dark winding from the bright abodes Of men, and when life’s last detaining thread Is cut by Iris, and the body, dead, With Charon’s coin in palm, rests in the tomb Or on the pyre, the dæmon of its doom After much pitiful forbearance tears The soul from its environment of cares With promise sweet of love’s awaiting kiss, Of old friends greeting, and much holy bliss On shores Elysian, where all ways are peace, And all existence virtue without cease; But ere the fields of Asphodel are won Dire labours manifold must first be done By soul and dæmon. From the Book