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THE ARGONAUTS (ARGONATUICA): MEDEA'S HESITATION, by                    
First Line: She spoke, and rose, and opened the room-door
Last Line: And mock at her; like her medea wept.
Alternate Author Name(s): Apollonius Of Rhodes


SHE spoke, and rose, and opened the room-door,
Unslippered, a single cloak about her put;
Eager to see her sister, forth she came
And crossed the threshold floor.
A long time in the impediment of her shame
She waited at the porchway, irresolute;
And then she turned again upon her track,
Again she came outside, again slipped back;
This way and that her fear bore her in vain;
When she ran out, shame tethered her again
Fast in her room, by passion of her will
Still driven, by her shame impeded still.
Three times she tried, three times herself she stayed,
But fell upon her pillow the fourth time
Face downward, like a bride within her room
Mourning the lusty groom
Brothers and parents had given her in troth,
And still her women, for shame and thought of him,
She dare not join, but sits and cries in a corner;
For him some doom laid low, before they both
Came each in other's blisses to exult.
With burning heart she sits, a silent mourner
Watching the bed unslept,
Afraid the other women will insult
And mock at her; like her Medea wept.





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