"Andromeda and the Storm King"

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 1, 15 July 1932, Page 6

"Andromeda and the Storm King"

(See article on page 5 on the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra Concert.) Proclaimed is the oracle! The Royal victim, The blanched Andromeda, fettered to the pitiless rock _ By the sea-nymphs’ cruel hands Is given as a prey to the monster of the deep. In the dark, the fierce black waters rise; The pure-hearted virgin mingles her wild cries IVith the thunder of Poseidon, King of the Storm, Pleading to be spared her life, for cursing the gods. With her closed eyes, where the frightful dream is painted, She sees the wrath of Hera. The approach of the dragon, The glaucous billows of the sea affrighting the shore. IVoman, lift up your eyes! Beyond the deep azure, From on high, everywhere, beyond the stellar night, A light hastens toward the earth, Swift as an arrow springing from the bow. Nearer! Nearer! a thousand bespangling sparks! The light pierces the clouds! O vision! Glorious and terrible! Transcendent fulguration! Gleaming swords! Joyful calls! Flapping wings! With golden helmet, resplendent armour, Swinging Pallas’s sword, and riding Pegasus, Before the virgin, with eyes revulsed with rapture, Perseus, the liberator, descends, The monster, quivering with hideous frenzy, Pounces upon the calit hero and Ins divine steed! But Pallas had sharpened the sword of justice, The ocean is empurpled, and the dragon expires. The night, now blue and full of stars, Andromeda, pale with hope, Feels the chains falling from her beautiful, unveiled body, Softly touched by Kronos’s trembling hands. The hero lifts the virgin upon the wings of Pegasus, To carry her away to the distant fields of the sky. Amid flowers of lights, and flames of bliss, The lovers are crowned with eternal happiness.