Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891)

Andromeda

THE MONSTER that with menace guarded thee

Rock-bound, unhappy one, at last is slain;

And thy long-prisoned loveliness set free

From the chill torment of its cruel chain.

For what, then, do those wistful gazes wait?

And why art thou still lingering there alone,

In fruitless freedom, so disconsolate?

Perseus is gone!

Heroic men, ’tis yours to dare and do.

Heroic women, yours the harder lot,

To wait and suffer. The years come and go.

Deliverance tarries. You can seek it not.

And if, when come at last, it comes too late?

Forlorn Andromeda, thy chains undone

Have freed thy life for what uncertain fate?

Perseus is gone!