 | The Sisters' Tragedy with Other Poems Lyrical and Dramatic |  |
I
Now there was one who came in later days
To play at Emperor: in the dead of night
Stole crown and sceptre, and stood forth to light
In sudden purple. The dawn's straggling rays
Showed Paris fettered, murmuring in amaze,
With red hands at her throat—a piteous sight.
Then the new Cæsar, stricken with affright
At his own daring, shrunk from public gaze
To play at Emperor: in the dead of night
Stole crown and sceptre, and stood forth to light
In sudden purple. The dawn's straggling rays
Showed Paris fettered, murmuring in amaze,
With red hands at her throat—a piteous sight.
Then the new Cæsar, stricken with affright
At his own daring, shrunk from public gaze
In the Elysée, and had lost the day
But that around him flocked his birds of prey,
Sharp-beaked, voracious, hungry for the deed.
'Twixt hope and fear behold great Cæsar hang!
Meanwhile, methinks, a ghostly laughter rang
Through the rotunda of the Invalides.
But that around him flocked his birds of prey,
Sharp-beaked, voracious, hungry for the deed.
16
Meanwhile, methinks, a ghostly laughter rang
Through the rotunda of the Invalides.
| The Sisters' Tragedy with Other Poems Lyrical and Dramatic | |