June 10
Companions of the Way (Morning)If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me.
COULD I take me to some cavern for mine hiding, In the hill-tops where the Sun scarce hath trod; Or a cloud make a home of mine abiding, As a bird among the bird-droves of God! Could I win me to my rest amid the roar Of the deep Adriatic on the shore, Where the water of Eridanus is clear, And Phaëthon's sad sisters by his grave Weep into the river and each tear Gleams, a drop of amber, in the wave.
To the strand of the Daughters of the Sunset, The Apple-tree, the singing and the gold; Where the mariner must stay him from his onset, And the red wave is tranquil as of old; Yea, beyond that Pillar of the End That Atlas guardeth, would I wend; Where a voice of living waters never ceaseth In God's quiet garden by the sea, And Earth, the ancient life-giver, increaseth. Joy among the meadows, like a tree.
Chorus from the Hippolytus of Euripides, trans. by Gilbert Murray
THE SACRAMENT OF SOLITUDE