THE SORCERESS Essay Example For Students

THE SORCERESS Essay A monologue by Theocritus NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Theocritus. Trans. C. S. Calverley. London: Bell and Daldyl, 1869. SORCERESS: Where are the bay-leaves, Thestylis, and the charms?Fetch all; with fiery wool the caldron crown;Let glamour win me back my false lords heart!Twelve days the wretch hath not come nigh to me,Nor made enquiry if I die or live,Nor clamoured (oh unkindness!) at my door.Sure his swift fancy wanders otherwhere,The slave of Aphrodite and of Love.But Ill charm him now with charms.So shine out fair, O moon! To thee I singMy soft low song: to thee and HecateThe dweller in the shades, at whose approachEen the dogs quake, as on she moves through bloodAnd darkness and the barrows of the slain.All hail, dread Hecate: companion meUnto the end, and work me witcheriesPotent as Circe or Medea wrought,Or Perimede of the golden hair!Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love.First we ignite the grain. Nay, pile it on:Where are thy wits flown, timorous Thestylis?Shall I be flouted, I, by such as thou?Pile, and still say, This pile is of his bones.Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love.De lphis racks me: I burn him in these bays.As, flame-enkindled, they lift up their voice,Blaze once, and not a trace is left behind:So waste his flesh to powder in yon fire!Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love.Een as I melt, not uninspired, the wax,May Mindian Delphis melt this hour with love:And, swiftly as this brazen wheel whirls round,May Aphrodite whirl him to my door.Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love.Next burn the husks. Hells adamantine floorAnd aught that else stands firm can Artemis move.Thestylis, the hounds bay up and down the town:The goddess stands i the crossroads: sound the gongs.Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love.Hushed are the voices of the winds and seas;But O not hushed the voice of my despair.He burns my being up, who left me hereNo wife, no maiden, in my misery.Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love.Thrice I pour out; speak thrice, sweet mistress, thus:What face soeer hangs oer him be forgotClean as, in Dia, Theseus (legends say)Forg at his Ariadnes locks of love.Turn, magic, wheel, draw homeward him I love.The coltsfoot grows in Arcady, the weedThat drives the mountain-colts and swift mares wild.Like them may Delphis rave: so, maniac-wise,Race from his burnished brethren home to me.Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love.He lost this tassel from his robe; which IShred thus, and cast it on the raging flames.Ah baleful Love! why, like the marsh-born leech,Cling to my flesh, and drain my dark veins dry?Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love.From a crushed eft tomorrow he shall drinkDeath! But now, Thestylis, take these herbs and smearThat threshold oer, whereto at heart I clingStill, stillalbeit he thinks scorn of meAnd spit, and say, Tis Delphis bones I smear.Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love. We will write a custom essay on THE SORCERESS specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now (Bethink thee, mistress Moon, whence came my love.)Scares, mischief-mad, the maiden from her bower,The bride from her warm couch. He spake: and I,A willing listener, sat, my hand in his,Among the cushions, and his cheek touched mine,Each hotter than its wont, and we discoursedIn soft low language. Need I prate to thee,Sweet Moon, of all we said and all we did?Till yesterday he found no fault with me,Nor I with him. But lo, to-day there camePhilistas motherhers who flutes to meWith her Melampos; just when up the skyGallop the mares that chariot rose-limbed Dawn:And divers tales she brought me, with the restHow Delphis loved, she knew not rightly whom:But this she knew; that of the rich wine, ayeHe poured to Love; and at the last had fled,To line, she deemed, the fair ones hall with flowers.Such was my visitors tale, and it was true:For thrice, nay four times, daily he would strollHither, leave here full oft his Dorian flask:Nowtis a fortnight since I saw his face.Doth he then treasure something sweet elsewhere?Am I forgot? Ill charm him now with charms.But let him try me more, and by the FatesHell soon be knocking at the gates of hell.Spells of such power are in this chest of mine,Learned, lady, from mine host in Palestine.