The spell was broken--the palace vanished--the God disappeared, and Psyche,
mourning in bitter tears for her foolish curiosity, found herself standing
on a desolate rock. {83}
"Dread horror seizes on her sinking heart,
A mortal chillness shudders at her breast,
Her soul shrinks, fainting, from death's icy dart,
The groan scarce uttered, dies, but half expressed,
And down she sinks in deadly swoon oppressed:
But when at length, awaking from her trance,
The terrors of her fate stood all confessed,
In vain she casts around her timid glance,
The rudely frowning scenes, her former joys enhance.
"No traces of those joys, alas! remain;
A desert solitude alone appears.
No verdant shade relieves the sandy plain,
The wide spread waste, no gentle fountain cheers;
One barren face the dreary prospect wears;
Nought thro' the vast horizon meets her eye
To calm the dismal tumult of her fears,
No trace of human habitation nigh,
A sandy wild beneath, above a threatening sky."