ION; A TRAGEDY. 



And thou shalt hear me! Think upon the time 

 When the clear depths of thy yet lucid soul 

 Were ruffled with the troublings of strange joy, 

 As if some unseen visitant from heaven 

 Touch'd the calm lake and wreath'd its images 

 In sparkling waves ; recal the dallying hope 

 That on the margin of assurance trembled 

 As loth to lose in certainty too bless'd 

 Its happy being ; taste iri thought again 

 Of the stolen sweetness of those evening walks, 

 When pansied turf was air to winged feet, 

 And circling forests, by etherial touch 

 Enchanted, wore the livery of the sky, 

 As if about to melt in golden light 

 Shapes of one heavenly vision ; and thy heart, 

 Enlarged by its new sympathy with one, 

 Grew bountiful to all ! 



Adrastus. That tone ! that tone! 



Whence came it? from thy lips? It cannot be 

 The long-hushed music of the only voice 

 That ever spake unbought affection to me, 

 And waked my soul to blessing ! O sweet hours 

 Of golden joy, ye come ! your glories break 

 Through my pavilion'd spirit's sable folds! 

 Roll on! roll on ! Stranger, thou dost enforce me 

 To speak of things unbreath'd by lip of mine 

 To human ear : wilt listen ? 

 Ion. As a child. 



Adrastus. Again ! that voice again ! thou hast seen me moved 

 As never mortal saw me, by a tone 

 Which some light breeze, enamour'd of the sound, 

 Hath wafted through the woods, till thy young voice 

 Caught it to rive and melt me. At my birth 

 This city, which, expectant of its Prince, 

 Lay hush'd, broke out in clamorous ecstacies ; 

 Yet, in that moment, while the uplifted cups 

 Foam'd with the choicest product of the sun, 

 And welcome thundered from a thousand throats, 

 My doom was seal'd. From the hearth's vacant space, 

 In the dark chamber where my mother lay, 

 Faint with the sense of pain-bought happiness, 

 Came forth, in hear-appalling tone, these words 

 Of me the nurseling " Woe unto the babe ! 

 Against the life which now begins shall life 

 Lighted from thence be arm'd, and both soon quench'd, 

 End this great line in sorrow!" Ere I grew 

 Of years to know myself a thing accursed, 

 A second son was born, to steal the love 

 Which fate had else scarce rifled : he became 

 My parent's hope, the darling of the crew 

 Who lived upon their smiles, and thought it flattery 

 To trace in every foible of my youth 

 A prince's youth"! the workings of the curse ; 

 My very mother Jove ! I cannot bear 

 To speak it now look'd freezingly upon me ! 

 Ion. But thy brother 



Adrastus, Died. Thou hast heard the lie, 



The common lie that every peasant tells 



11 



