But the summit and crown of all crimes is that which in Lemnos
befell;
A woe and a mourning it is, a shame and a spitting to
tell;
And he that in after time doth speak of his deadliest
thought,
Doth say, It is like to the deed that of old time in Lemnos was
wrought;
And loathed of men were the doers, and perished, they and their
seed,
For the gods brought hate upon them; none loveth the impious deed.
strophe 4
It is well of these tales to tell; for the sword in the grasp
of
Right
With a cleaving, a piercing blow to the innermost heart doth
smite,
And the deed unlawfully done is not trodden down nor
forgot,
When the sinner out-steppeth the law and heedeth the high God not;
antistrophe 4
But justice hath planted the anvil, and Destiny forgeth the
sword
That shall smite in her chosen time; by her is the child
restored;
And, darkly devising, the Fiend of the house, world-cursed, will
repay
The price of the blood of the slain, that was shed in the bygone day.
Studies
