Why do you follow me?-- Any moment I can be Nothing but a laurel-tree.
Any moment of the chase I can leave you in my place A pink bough for your embrace.
Yet if over hill and hollow Still it is your will to follow, I am off;--to heel, Apollo!
Daphne herself speaks in Millay’s retelling, turning a story of pursuit and fear into something sharp and playful. Apollo is chasing her, but she warns him that she can escape at any moment by becoming a laurel tree. She even imagines leaving only a pink branch behind for him to clutch.
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