(From the introduction to a Greek prize ode.)
I.
Leave thy gates of darkness, Death,
Come to take my fleeting breath;
Haste, oh, haste to set me free!—
Fettered thus to misery.
II.
Thou shalt not be greeted here
With pallid cheek and gushing tear—
Here no funeral ululation,
Sound of woe or lamentation.
III.
Gloomy Genius though thou be,
Yet thou dwellest with Liberty;
Here but the encircling dance shall greet thee,
Nought but songs of joy shall meet thee.
IV.
Thine no gloomy, lone dominion,—
Haste thee on thine ebon pinion;
O’er the swelling ocean speed me—
To my long lost home, oh, lead me!
V.
There ’neath the shady citron grove,
By limpid fountains lovers rove,
And there, to loved ones tell again
The heartless deeds of fellow men.