Alcestis

I sometimes dream Alcestis, thinking deep

Of giving up her life to save her lord's,

Heard suddenly, and pondered well, these words:

"Who loses life shall find it."

And so she looked her last on the white sheep,

The rugged shepherds piping in the dell,

Maid-servants drawing water from the well,

Her little children playing on the grass;

And with no slightest thought of pain or grief,

As lightly as in autumn falls a leaf,

Down thorny by-ways leading from the steep

Hastened, rejoicing as she went, to hell.