Iphigenia in Tauris

SCENE I.

A Grove before the Temple of Diana.







IPHIGENIA.

Beneath your leafy gloom, ye waving boughs

Of this old, shady, consecrated grove,

As in the goddess' silent sanctuary,

With the same shudd'ring feeling forth I step,

As when I trod it first, nor ever here

Doth my unquiet spirit feel at home.

Long as the mighty will, to which I bow,

Hath kept me here conceal'd, still, as at first,

I feel myself a stranger. For the sea

Doth sever me, alas! from those I love,

And day by day upon the shore I stand,

My soul still seeking for the land of Greece.

But to my sighs, the hollow-sounding waves

Bring, save their own hoarse murmurs, no reply.

Alas for him! who friendless and alone,

Remote from parents and from brethren dwells;

From him grief snatches every coming joy

Ere it doth reach his lip. His restless thoughts

Revert for ever to his father's halls,

Where first to him the radiant sun unclos'd

The gates of heav'n; where closer, day by day,

Brothers and sisters, leagu'd in pastime sweet,

Around each other twin'd the bonds of love.

I will not judge the counsel of the gods;