3.5

So they swooped to their prey;

there was never such a spread of wings,

such a play of golden feathers,

though I did not see them,

I heard them, as I heard myself say,

O Thetis, O sea-mother;

Let me forget the other,

for to-day is to-day,

ringed and rayed with the word "beautiful";

how shall I answer him?

what is the answer to

Helena, which was the dream?

the rasp of a severed wheel,

the fury of steel upon steel,

the spark from a sword on a shield?

or the deathless spark

of Helena's wakening...

a touch in the dark?

H.D., Helen in Egypt, New Directions, s.d. (1961, 1ªed.)