A POETRY ANTHOLOGY

          ORPHEUS' DREAM

          And she was there. The little boat

          Coasting the perilous isles of sleep,

          Zones of oblivion and despair,

          Stopped, for Eurydice was there.

         The foundering skiff could scarcely keep

          All that felicity afloat.

          As if we had left earth's frontier wood

          Long since and from this sea had won

          The lost original of the soul,

          The moment gave us pure and whole

          Each back to each, and swept us on

          Past every choice to boundless good.

          Forgiveness, truth, atonement, all

          Our love at once-till we could dare

          At last to turn our heads and see

          The poor ghost of Eurydice

          Still sitting in her silver chair,

          Alone in Hades' empty hall.

Edwin Muir

Collected Poems

(London: Faber & Faber, 1960), pp. 216-17