Yearn

Above graphic produced with the assistance of Add Letters

Manto [dreaming within].
From horse-hoofs bounding
The sacred stairs are resounding;
Demigods are drawing near.

Chiron. Quite right!
Raise your eyes; behold who's here!

Manto [awakening]. Welcome! I see you do not fail to come.

Chiron. Likewise for you still stands your temple-home.

Manto. Are you still roaming, never weary?

Chiron. Well, you abide in stillness eerie,
The while I circle joyously.

Manto. I wait here, time encircles me.
And this man?

Chiron. Him hath this ill-fated night
Caught in its whirl and brought here to your sight.
Helena, go his wits a-spinning,
Helena he has dreams of winning,
But knows no way to make beginning,
Most worthy, Aesculapian cure to prove.

Manto. Who yearns for the impossible I love.

[CHIRON is already far away.]

Manto. Enter, audacious one, glad shall you be;
The gloomy way leads to Persephone.
Within Olympus' cavern foot
She lists in secret for prescribed salute.
Here did I smuggle Orpheus in of old.
Use your turn better! Quick! be bold!

[They descend.]

Excerpt from Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist, philosopher, and for ten years chief minister of state at Weimar.