“ARTEMIDORA! Gods invisible, <br />While thou art lying faint along the couch, <br />Have tied the sandal to thy veined feet, <br />And stand beside thee, ready to convey <br />Thy weary steps where other rivers flow. <br />Refreshing shades will waft thy weariness <br />Away, and voices like thine own come nigh, <br />Soliciting, nor vainly, thy embrace.” <br />Artemidora sigh’d, and would have press’d <br />The hand now pressing hers, but was too weak. <br />Fate’s shears were over her dark hair unseen <br />While thus Elpenor spake: he look’d into <br />Eyes that had given light and life erewhile <br />To those above them, those now dim with tears <br />And watchfulness. Again he spake of joy, <br />Eternal. At that word, that sad word, joy, <br />Faithful and fond her bosom heav’d once more, <br />Her head fell back: one sob, one loud deep sob <br />Swell’d through the darken’d chamber; ’t was not hers: <br />With her that old boat incorruptible, <br />Unwearied, undiverted in its course, <br />Had plash’d the water up the farther strand.<br /><br />Walter Savage Landor<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-death-of-artemidora/
