Might well endure to see the adulteress die,

The husband-slayer fordone

By swordstroke of her son,

Unutterable, unimaginable on high,

On earth abhorrent, fell

Beyond all scourge of hell,

Yet righteous as redemption: Love stood nigh,

Mute, sister-like, and closer clung

Than all fierce forms of threatening coil and maddening tongue.

31.

All these things heard and seen and sung of old,

He heard and saw and sang them. Once again

Might foot of man tread, eye of man behold

Things unbeholden save of ancient men,

Ways save by gods untrodden. In his hold

The staff that stayed through some Ætnean glen

The steps of the most highest, most awful-souled

And mightiest-mouthed of singers, even as then

Became a prophet's rod,

A lyre on fire of God,

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