‘Bacchus, awake, awake!’ it said,
“The whole world mourns thee doomed or dead;
Take up thy burden, wild and sweet,
Tyrannic joy on flower-like feet;
Arouse thy brethren from their dreams,
The low moon pales, Orion gleams;
Bid thy Bacchantes, white and still,
The wine-cups from their beakers fill;
Thy Fauns stir from their rose-hung bed
That slumber in the dawning red—
O passionate, wayward, loving son,
Make thou thy way to Pergamon!’ ”
“The whole world mourns thee doomed or dead;
Take up thy burden, wild and sweet,
Tyrannic joy on flower-like feet;
Arouse thy brethren from their dreams,
The low moon pales, Orion gleams;
Bid thy Bacchantes, white and still,
The wine-cups from their beakers fill;
Thy Fauns stir from their rose-hung bed
That slumber in the dawning red—
O passionate, wayward, loving son,
Make thou thy way to Pergamon!’ ”
I said: “Good fortune favoured thee,
For thou didst join their company.”
For thou didst join their company.”
He answered: “Yes, but in that space
A light fell on the fair god’s face.
‘Evoe! Evoe!’ he cried. ‘Again
Truth fires our lips, wine floods our brain—
Come with me ere your souls grow dim!’
The young Fauns laughed, ‘We go with him!’
One sang and danced, while one, half mute,
Blew music on an ivory flute;
The Mænads in the crimson glow
Called: “Come with us— go whither we go!
This day we leave with stainèd faces,
Forever, our ancestral places;
A light fell on the fair god’s face.
‘Evoe! Evoe!’ he cried. ‘Again
Truth fires our lips, wine floods our brain—
Come with me ere your souls grow dim!’
The young Fauns laughed, ‘We go with him!’
One sang and danced, while one, half mute,
Blew music on an ivory flute;
The Mænads in the crimson glow
Called: “Come with us— go whither we go!
This day we leave with stainèd faces,
Forever, our ancestral places;
12
