Whilst their grievance each is venting
In the Underworld below,
Ceres, on the earth lamenting,
Runs distracted to and fro;
With no hood in sloven fashion,
Neither mantle o'er her gown,
She declaims that lamentation
Unto all of us well-known: -- 1

"Is the blessed spring-tide here?
Has the earth again grown young?
Green the sunny hills appear
And the icy band is sprung.
Mirrored from the clear blue river,
Zeus, unclouded, laugheth out,
Softer Zephyr's wings now quiver,
Buds upon the fresh twigs sprout.
In the hedge a new refrain;
Call the Oreads from the shore:
'All thy flowers come again,
But thy daughter comes no more!'

"Ah, how many weary days
I have sought o'er wide earth's space!
Titan, all thy sunny rays
I have sent on her dear trace!
Yet not one renews assurance
Of the darling face I wot,
Day, that findeth all things, the durance
Of my lost one, findeth not.
"Hast thou ravished, Zeus, my daughter?
Or, love-smitten by her charms,
Hath, o'er Orcus's night-black water,
Pluto snatched her in his arms?

"Who towards that gloomy strand
Herald of my grief will be?
Ever floats the bark from land,
Bearing phantoms ceaselessly.
Closed those shadowy fields are ever
Unto any blessèd sight,
Since thy Styx hath been a river,
It hath borne no living wight.
There are thousand stairs descending,
But not one leads upward there;
To her tears no token lending
At the anxious mother's prayer."