Sonnet: With a Version of Euripides' Alcestis

AT times, when on a weary way and long
The rain and darkness quench the final gleam
Of twilight vanished, gentle pilgrims deem
That troops of dim majestic figures throng
The unending corridors of thought along :
And faintly, far away, they hear, or seem
To hear, like music from a breaking dream,
The choric harmonies of Attic song.
More faint and far and fleeting, gentle friends,
To whom may never come her living voice,
In the harsh accents of our native speech
An echo here Alcestis’ lover sends.
If one sweet, haunting tone your hearts shall reach,
So may he doubly in his task rejoice.

William Cranston Lawton.