…Short partings do best, though: time wears out affections,
The absent love fades, a new one takes its place.
With Menelaus away,
Helen's disinclination for
Alone led her into her
Warm bed at night.
Were you crazy,
Menelaus?
Why go off leaving your
With a stranger in the house?
Do you trust doves to falcons,
Full sheepfolds to mountain wolves?
Here Helen's not at fault, the adulterer's blameless -He did no more than you, or any man else,
Would do yourself.
By providing place and
You precipitated the act.
What else did she
But act on your clear advice?
Husband gone; this stylish
Here on the spot; too scared to sleep alone -Oh,
Helen wins my acquittal, the blame's her husband's:
All she did was take advantage of a
Human complaisance.
And yet, more savage than the
Boar in his rage, as he tosses the maddened
On lightening tusks, or a lioness suckling her
Cubs, or the tiny adder
By some careless foot, is a woman's wrath, when some
Is caught in the bed she shares.
Her feelings
On her face.
Decorum's flung to the wind, a
Frenzy grips her, she rushes headlong
After fire and steel… .
