Orpheus and Other Poems by Edward Burrough Brownlow

Unto the realm of Pluto many roads
Lead with dark winding from the bright abodes
Of men, and when life’s last detaining thread
Is cut by Iris, and the body, dead,
With Charon’s coin in palm, rests in the tomb
Or on the pyre, the dæmon of its doom
After much pitiful forbearance tears
The soul from its environment of cares
With promise sweet of love’s awaiting kiss,
Of old friends greeting, and much holy bliss
On shores Elysian, where all ways are peace,
And all existence virtue without cease;
But ere the fields of Asphodel are won
Dire labours manifold must first be done
By soul and dæmon.
From the Book