Cadmus and Harmonia

Far, far from here,

The Adriatic breaks in a warm

Among the green Illyrian hills; and

The sunshine in the happy glens is fair,

And by the sea, and in the brakes.

The grass is cool, the sea-side

Buoyant and fresh, the mountain

More virginal and sweet than ours.

And there, they say, two bright and aged snakes,

Who once were Cadmus and Harmonia,

Bask in the glens or on the warm sea-shore,

In breathless quiet, after all their ills;

Nor do they see their country, nor the

Where the Sphinx lived among the frowning hills,

Nor the unhappy palace of their race,

Nor Thebes, nor the Ismenus, any more.

There those two live, far in the Illyrian brakes!

They had stay'd long enough to see,

In Thebes, the billow of

Over their own dear children roll'd,

Curse upon curse, pang upon pang,

For years, they sitting helpless in their home,

A grey old man and woman; yet of old The Gods had to their marriage come,

And at the banquet all the Muses sang.

Therefore they did not end their days In sight of blood, but were rapt, far away,

To where the west-wind plays,

And murmurs of the Adriatic come To those untrodden mountain-lawns; and there Placed safely in changed forms, the pair Wholly forgot their first sad life, and home,

And all that Theban woe, and stray For ever through the glens, placid and dumb.