Iphigenia in Tauris

SCENE I.
A Grove before the Temple of Diana.

IPHIGENIA.
Beneath your leafy gloom, ye waving boughs
Of this old, shady, consecrated grove,
As in the goddess silent sanctuary,
With the same shuddring feeling forth I step,
As when I trod it first, nor ever here
Doth my unquiet spirit feel at home.
Long as the mighty will, to which I bow,
Hath kept me here conceald, still, as at first,
I feel myself a stranger. For the sea
Doth sever me, alas! from those I love,
And day by day upon the shore I stand,
My soul still seeking for the land of Greece.
But to my sighs, the hollow-sounding waves
Bring, save their own hoarse murmurs, no reply.
Alas for him! who friendless and alone,
Remote from parents and from brethren dwells;
From him grief snatches every coming joy
Ere it doth reach his lip. His restless thoughts
Revert for ever to his fathers halls,
Where first to him the radiant sun unclosd
The gates of heavn; where closer, day by day,
Brothers and sisters, leagud in pastime sweet,
Around each other twind the bonds of love.
I will not judge the counsel of the gods;