University of Virginia Library

Then to Cuhoolin said she “how I grieve
For thy sweet slumber being broken,
Wherein thy soul's eyes had been closed for ever
To all the world of men,
And to the gods' thrown open.
Yet is it not too late; give me thy hand;
And, troubled though thy vision be
With mingled gleams of either land,
I will steady thee, I will guide thee
Safely over the stepping stones:
And, when thy feet are firm on the further shore,
There will I unravel
The web of light and shadow,
That now imprisons thy spirit;
From thy vision will I pluck the threads of darkness,
And the raiment of thy soul reweave in light.”

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But I, with sudden movement of quick fear,
Sprang to his side and came between them,
Clasped his hands and shielded from her touch:
“Hasten, O Cuhoolin, hasten,
Ere the spell-cloud, I have broken
Close again around thy soul.”
Yet moved he not, and with dismay I saw
Trouble in his eyes, and anger on his brow;
And petulant his words were, as a child's
Suddenly roused from sleep, not like a man's,
Much less the chief of heroes: