HOTHER. I soon shall find him!

[He goes in spite of NANNA'S endeavour to detain him.

NANNA. Ah! he goes--he rages;
And Balder yells with wrath. Some serpent surely
Has breath'd to-day his poison in their bosoms.
They hate, they seek each other! Who asunder
Will hold the raging bears. Ah! who will soften
The foaming ones? I have this hour expected,
And long by art have I delay'd its coming;
But now is art, and prayer, and all else useless:
E'en now they meet in conflict. I am powerless!
What can my tears avail? Alas! blood only
Will satiate them and Heaven: thine must trickle,
My Hother. What art thou against a half-god?
When thy fire, Ourath, but glimmers,
Tears can quench it instantly;
But it flames, and now 'twere wonder
Could the weak drops keep it under.
Ah! thy blazes fierce and cruel
In the lov'd one's grief find fuel,
And are fann'd by plaintive cry.
Tear, with which mine eye is swelling,
Thou canst not remove the ill;
O keep in thou fruitless wailing,
Let my bosom hide thee still. [She goes.