Or me like him transform⁠—I ask no more.’ ”

“ ‘Come, my Harmonia, come, thy face recline Down to my face: still touch what still is mine. O let these hands, while hands, be gently pressed, While yet the serpent has not all possessed.’ More he had spoke, but strove to speak in vain⁠— The forky tongue refused to tell his pain, And learned in hissings only to complain. “Then shrieked Harmonia, ‘Stay, my Cadmus, stay! Glide not in such a monstrous shape away! Destruction, like impetuous waves, rolls on. Where are thy feet, thy legs, thy shoulders, gone? Changed is thy visage, changed is all thy frame⁠— Cadmus is only Cadmus now in name. Ye Gods! my Cadmus to himself restore. Or me like him transform⁠—I ask no more.’ ”