Labyrinth II: Return to the Underground

Interlude: "The Forsaken"

"The Forsaken"



Come, dear neice, let us away;

Down and away below!

Now my brothers call from the bay;

Now my sisters wait on the banks of the river low;

Now the great winds shoreward blow;

Now the wild, rusty sprites play,

Champ and tumble and toss in the rays.

Neice dear, let us away.

This way, this way!



Call her once before you go-

Call once yet!

In a voice that she will know:

"Aurora! Aurora!"

A child's voice should be dear

(Call once more) even to an aunt's ear;

A child's voice, wild with pain-

Surely she will come again!

Call her once and come away.

This way, this way!

"Auntie dear, we cannot stay!

The wild, rusty sprites murmur and fret."

Aurora! Aurora!



Niece dear, was it yesterday

We heard the sweet bells by the bay?

In the castle where we lay,

Through the sky and through the portals,

The far-off silver bells of mortals?

Ivy-covered castle, dark and deep,

Where the winds are all asleep;

Where the spent light quivers and gleams;

Where the night gives stage to crystal dreams;

Where the creatures roam the land

Never chained by human hand;

Where the Pook live and slumber,

Raise their young, and increase in number;

Where the great Gryphon comes flying by,

Fly and fly, with unshut eye,

Round the world for ever and aye?

When did the music come this way?

Niece dear, was it yesterday?



Niece dear, was it yesterday

(Call yet once) that she went away?

Once she sate with you and me,

On a red gold throne under the Flarrow tree,

And you, my dear, sate on her knee.

She brushed your raven tresses, and she tended them well,

When down swung the sound of a far-off bell.

She sigh'd, she looked through the clear blue portal;

She said: "I must go, for my heart does yearn

For what beyond the portal lies and of that world I must learn.

And I lose my poor soul, mo run, here with thee."

I said, "Go then, ashula, through the gateway- to this place you are not bound:

Have thy visit, and then come back to the Underground."

She smiled, she went through the portal by the bay.

Niece dear, was it yesterday?



Niece dear, were we long alone?

"The sky grows stormy, the little one moans;

Long lessons," I said, "in the world they teach'

Come!" I said, and we went through the portal by the beach.

We went up the hill, past trees green and brown

Where the wild lilies bloom, to the stone-walled town.

Through the narrow paved streets, where all was still,

To a large, gray house on a windy hill.

From the house came a murmur of the folk dining there,

But we stood without in the cold blowing airs.

We watched through the window, the stones worn with rains,

And we gazed upon the room through the small leaded panes.

She sate by the fire; we saw her clear:

"Aurora, hist! Come quick, we are here!

"Ashula," I said, "we are long alone.

The sky grows stormy, the little one moans."

But, ah! she never gave me a look,

For her eyes were glued to a human book!

Loud talk the people; shut stands the door.

Come away, dear neice, call no more.

Down, down, down,

Down to the depths of the oubliette!

She sits by her window in the humming town,

Singing most joyfully.

Hark what she sings: "O joy, O joy

From the humming street, and the child with his toy!

From the priest, and the bell, and the holy well;

From the window where I sat

This I saw with a black and white cat!"



And so she sings her fill,

Singing most joyfully,

Till the book drops from her hand,

And the fire's flame stands still.

She steals to the window and looks at the land,

And past the land to a realm no human eye can see;

And her eyes are set in a stare;

And anon breaks a sigh,

And anon drops a tear,

From sorrow-clouded eyes,

And a heart sorrow- laden,

A long, long sigh;

For the gold strange eyes of a little maiden

And the gleam of her ebony curls.



Come away, away, child!

Come, my dear neice, come down!

The North Wind blows colder;

Lights shine in the town.

She will start from her slumber

When the gusts shake the door;

She will hear the winds howling,

Will hear the waves roar.

We shall see, while above us

The sky roars and whirls,

A ceiling of amber,

A pavement of pearls.

Singing: "Here came a princess,

But faithless was she:

And alone dwell forever

The king of the Labyrinth."



But, neice, at midnight,

When the soft winds blow,

When clear falls the moonlight,

When spring-tides are low:

When sweet airs come seaward

From heaths starr'd with broom;

And high rocks throw mildly

On the blanch'd sands a gloom:

From our castle beyond the Goblin City

With hearts, for ourselves, full of pity,

We will watch through the portal's crown,

The gray, sleeping town;

The house on the hillside-

And then will turn away.

Singing: "There dwells a loved one,

But cruel is she!

She left lonely forever

The king and princess of the Labyrinth."



(The original poem "The Forsaken Merman" was written by Matthew Arnold. I reworded portions of the passages in order to make it work for Labyrinth II: Return to the Underground. Thank you, Mister Arnold for such a moving piece.)