8
ARIADNE.
The demigod Theseus having won the love of Ariadne, daughter of the king of Crete, deserted her on the isle of Naxoa. In Miss Bremer's H——— Family, the blind girl is described as singing "Ariadne a Naxos," in which Ariadne is represented as following Theseus, climbing a high rock to watch his departing vessel, and calling upon him in her despairing anguish.
Daughter of Crete, how one brief hour,
E'en in thy young love's early morn,
Sends storm and darkness o'er thy bower,
O doomed, O desolate, O lorn!
The breast which pillowed thy fair head
Rejects its burden, and the eye
Which looked its love so earnestly
Its last cold glance hath on thee shed;
The arms which were thy living zone,
Around thee closely, warmly thrown,
Shall others clasp, deserted one!
E'en in thy young love's early morn,
Sends storm and darkness o'er thy bower,
O doomed, O desolate, O lorn!
The breast which pillowed thy fair head
Rejects its burden, and the eye
Which looked its love so earnestly
Its last cold glance hath on thee shed;
The arms which were thy living zone,
Around thee closely, warmly thrown,
Shall others clasp, deserted one!
Yet, Ariadne, worthy thou
Of the dark fate which meets thee now,
Of the dark fate which meets thee now,
