University of Virginia Library

ALCYONE.

SONNET.

PHŒBUS.
What voice is this that wails above the deep?

ALCYONE.
A wife's, that mourns her fate and loveless days.

PHŒBUS.
What love lies buried in these water-ways?

ALCYONE.
A husband's, hurried to eternal sleep.

PHŒBUS.
Cease, O beloved, cease to wail and weep!

ALCYONE.
Wherefore?

PHŒBUS.
The waters in a fiery blaze
Proclaim the godhead of my healing rays.

ALCYONE.
No god can sow where fate hath stood to reap.

PHŒBUS.
Hold, wringing hands! cease, piteous tears, to fall!

ALCYONE.
But grief must rain and glut the passionate sea.

PHŒBUS.
Thou shalt forget this ocean and thy wrong,
And I will bless the dead, though past recall.

ALCYONE.
What canst thou give to me or him in me?

PHŒBUS.
A name in story and a light in song.