Explore "The Masque of Pandora" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
PANDORA. / Left to myself I wander as I will, / And as my fancy leads me, through this house, / Nor could I ask a dwelling more complete / Were I indeed the Goddess that he deems me. / No mansion of Olympus, framed to be / The habitation of the Immortal Gods, / Can be more beautiful. And this is mine / And more than this, the love wherewith he crowns me. / As if impelled by powers invisible / And irresistible, my steps return / Unto this spacious hall. All corridors / And passages lead hither, and all doors / But open into it. Yon mysterious chest / Attracts and fascinates me. Would I knew / What there lies hidden! But the oracle / Forbids. Ah me! The secret then is safe. / So would it be if it were in my keeping. / A crowd of shadowy faces from the mirrors / That line these walls are watching me. I dare not / Lift up the lid. A hundred times the act / Would be repeated, and the secret seen / By twice a hundred incorporeal eyes.
(She walks to the other side of the hall.)