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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Erechtheus + A Tragedy (New Edition) + +Author: Algernon Charles Swinburne + +Release Date: June 11, 2006 [EBook #18550] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ERECHTHEUS *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Taavi Kalju and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>ERECHTHEUS:</h1> + +<h2>A TRAGEDY.</h2> + + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE</h2> + + + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">ὦ ταὶ λιπαραὶ καὶ ἰοστέφανοι καὶ ἀοίδιμοι<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ἑλλάδος ἔρεισμα, κλειναὶ Ἀθᾶναι δαιμόνιον πτολίεθρον.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Pind</span>. <i>Fr.</i> 47.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">ΑΤ. τίς δὲ ποιμάνωρ ἔπεστι κἀπιδεσπόζει στρατοῦ;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">ΧΟ. οὔτινος δοῦλοι κέκληνται φωτὸς οὐδ' ὑπηκόοι.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Æsch</span>. <i>Pers.</i> 241-2.</p> + + +<h3><i>A NEW EDITION.</i></h3> + + +<h4> +London:<br /> +CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY.<br /> +1881.<br /> +</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PERSONS.</h2> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> + <td align='left'>ERECHTHEUS.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'>CHORUS OF ATHENIAN ELDERS.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'>PRAXITHEA.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'>CHTHONIA.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'>MESSENGER.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'>ATHENIAN HERALD.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'>ATHENA.</td> +</tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>ERECHTHEUS.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mother of life and death and all men's days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth, whom I chief of all men born would bless,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And call thee with more loving lips than theirs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mother, for of this very body of thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And living blood I have my breath and live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold me, even thy son, me crowned of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me made thy child by that strong cunning God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who fashions fire and iron, who begat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me for a sword and beacon-fire on thee,<br /></span><span class="linenum">10</span> +<span class="i0">Me fosterling of Pallas, in her shade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reared, that I first might pay the nursing debt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hallowing her fame with flower of third-year feasts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first bow down the bridled strength of steeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lose the wild wont of their birth, and bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clasp of man's knees and steerage of his hand,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Or fourfold service of his fire-swift wheels<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That whirl the four-yoked chariot; me the king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who stand before thee naked now, and cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O holy and general mother of all men born,<br /></span><span class="linenum">20</span> +<span class="i0">But mother most and motherliest of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth, for I ask thee rather of all the Gods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What have we done? what word mistimed or work<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath winged the wild feet of this timeless curse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fall as fire upon us? Lo, I stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here on this brow's crown of the city's head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That crowns its lovely body, till death's hour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waste it; but now the dew of dawn and birth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is fresh upon it from thy womb, and we<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold it born how beauteous; one day more<br /></span><span class="linenum">30</span> +<span class="i0">I see the world's wheel of the circling sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Roll up rejoicing to regard on earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This one thing goodliest, fair as heaven or he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worth a God's gaze or strife of Gods; but now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would this day's ebb of their spent wave of strife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweep it to sea, wash it on wreck, and leave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A costless thing contemned; and in our stead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where these walls were and sounding streets of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make wide a waste for tongueless water-herds<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And spoil of ravening fishes; that no more<br /></span><span class="linenum">40</span> +<span class="i0">Should men say, Here was Athens. This shalt thou<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sustain not, nor thy son endure to see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor thou to live and look on; for the womb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bare me not base that bare me miserable,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hear this loud brood of the Thracian foam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Break its broad strength of billowy-beating war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, and upon it as a blast of death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blowing, the keen wrath of a fire-souled king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A strange growth grafted on our natural soil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A root of Thrace in Eleusinian earth<br /></span><span class="linenum">50</span> +<span class="i0">Set for no comfort to the kindly land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Son of the sea's lord and our first-born foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eumolpus; nothing sweet in ears of thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The music of his making, nor a song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Toward hopes of ours auspicious; for the note<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rings as for death oracular to thy sons<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That goes before him on the sea-wind blown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of this charge laid on me, to put out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The brief light kindled of mine own child's life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or with this helmsman hand that steers the state<br /></span><span class="linenum">60</span> +<span class="i0">Run right on the under shoal and ridge of death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The populous ship with all its fraughtage gone<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And sails that were to take the wind of time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rent, and the tackling that should hold out fast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In confluent surge of loud calamities<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Broken, with spars of rudders and lost oars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That were to row toward harbour and find rest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In some most glorious haven of all the world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And else may never near it: such a song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods have set his lips on fire withal<br /></span><span class="linenum">70</span> +<span class="i0">Who threatens now in all their names to bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ruin; but none of these, thou knowest, have I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chid with my tongue or cursed at heart for grief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knowing how the soul runs reinless on sheer death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose grief or joy takes part against the Gods.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what they will is more than our desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And their desire is more than what we will.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For no man's will and no desire of man's<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall stand as doth a God's will. Yet, O fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mother, that seest me how I cast no word<br /></span><span class="linenum">80</span> +<span class="i0">Against them, plead no reason, crave no cause,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boast me not blameless, nor beweep me wronged,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By this fair wreath of towers we have decked thee with,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This chaplet that we give thee woven of walls,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +<span class="i0">This girdle of gate and temple and citadel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drawn round beneath thy bosom, and fast linked<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As to thine heart's root—this dear crown of thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This present light, this city—be not thou<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slow to take heed nor slack to strengthen her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fare we so short-lived howsoe'er, and pay<br /></span><span class="linenum">90</span> +<span class="i0">What price we may to ransom thee thy town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not me my life; but thou that diest not, thou,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though all our house die for this people's sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep thou for ours thy crown our city, guard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give it life the lovelier that we died.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sun, that hast lightened and loosed by thy might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ocean and Earth from the lordship of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quickening with vision his eye that was veiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Freshening the force in her heart that had failed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sister fettered and blinded brother<br /></span><span class="linenum">100</span> +<span class="i0">Should have sight by thy grace and delight of each other,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Behold now and see<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What profit is given them of thee;<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +<span class="i0">What wrath has enkindled with madness of mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her limbs that were bounden, his face that was blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be locked as in wrestle together, and lighten<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fire that shall darken thy fire in the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Body to body and eye against eye<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In a war against kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the bloom of her fields and her high hills whiten<br /></span><span class="linenum">110</span> +<span class="i2">With the foam of his waves more high.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the sea-marks set to divide of old<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The kingdoms to Ocean and Earth assigned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hoar sea-fields from the cornfields' gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His wine-bright waves from her vineyards' fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Frail forces we find<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bridle the spirit of Gods or bind<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till the heat of their hearts wax cold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the peace that was stablished between them to stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is rent now in twain by the strength of his hand<br /></span><span class="linenum">120</span> +<span class="i0">Who stirs up the storm of his sons overbold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pluck from fight what he lost of right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By council and judgment of Gods that spake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave great Pallas the strife's fair stake,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The lordship and love of the lovely land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grace of the town that hath on it for crown<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But a headband to wear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of violets one-hued with her hair:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the vales and the green high places of earth<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Hold nothing so fair,<br /></span><span class="linenum">130</span> +<span class="i0">And the depths of the sea bear no such birth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the manifold births they bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too well, too well was the great stake worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A strife divine for the Gods to judge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A crowned God's triumph, a foiled God's grudge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though the loser be strong and the victress wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who played long since for so large a prize,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fruitful immortal anointed adored<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dear city of men without master or lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair fortress and fostress of sons born free,<br /></span><span class="linenum">140</span> +<span class="i0">Who stand in her sight and in thine, O sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slaves of no man, subjects of none;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wonder enthroned on the hills and sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A maiden crowned with a fourfold glory<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That none from the pride of her head may rend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Violet and olive-leaf purple and hoary,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Song-wreath and story the fairest of fame,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Flowers that the winter can blast not or bend;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A light upon earth as the sun's own flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">A name as his name,<br /></span><span class="linenum">150</span> +<span class="i4">Athens, a praise without end.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A noise is arisen against us of waters,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">A sound as of battle come up from the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Strange hunters are hard on us, hearts without pity;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They have staked their nets round the fair young city,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That the sons of her strength and her virgin daughters<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Should find not whither alive to flee.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And we know not yet of the word unwritten,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The doom of the Pythian we have not heard;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the navel of earth and the veiled mid altar<br /></span><span class="linenum">160</span> +<span class="i2">We wait for a token with hopes that falter,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With fears that hang on our hearts thought-smitten<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Lest her tongue be kindled with no good word.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O thou not born of the womb, nor bred<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the bride-night's warmth of a changed God's bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thy life as a lightning was flashed from the light of thy father's head,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +<span class="i2">O chief God's child by a motherless birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If aught in thy sight we indeed be worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep death from us thou, that art none of the Gods of the dead under earth.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou that hast power on us, save, if thou wilt;<br /></span><span class="linenum">170</span> +<span class="i2">Let the blind wave breach not thy wall scarce built;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But bless us not so as by bloodshed, impute not for grace to us guilt,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor by price of pollution of blood set us free;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let the hands be taintless that clasp thy knee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor a maiden be slain to redeem for a maiden her shrine from the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 3.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">O earth, O sun, turn back<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Full on his deadly track<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death, that would smite you black and mar your creatures,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And with one hand disroot<br /></span> +<span class="i4">All tender flower and fruit,<br /></span><span class="linenum">180</span> +<span class="i0">With one strike blind and mute the heaven's fair features,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Pluck out the eyes of morn, and make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Silence in the east and blackness whence the bright songs break.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 3.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Help, earth, help, heaven, that hear<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The song-notes of our fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shrewd notes and shrill, not clear or joyful-sounding;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Hear, highest of Gods, and stay<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Death on his hunter's way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full on his forceless prey his beagles hounding;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Break thou his bow, make short his hand,<br /></span><span class="linenum">190</span> +<span class="i0">Maim his fleet foot whose passage kills the living land.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 4.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let a third wave smite not us, father,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Long since sore smitten of twain,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Lest the house of thy son's son perish<br /></span> +<span class="i8">And his name be barren on earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose race wilt thou comfort rather<br /></span> +<span class="i4">If none to thy son remain?<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whose seed wilt thou choose to cherish<br /></span> +<span class="i8">If his be cut off in the birth?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 4.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the first fair graft of his graffing<br /></span><span class="linenum">200</span> +<span class="i4">Was rent from its maiden root<br /></span> +<span class="i6">By the strong swift hand of a lover<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Who fills the night with his breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On the lip of the stream low-laughing<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Her green soft virginal shoot<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +<span class="i6">Was plucked from the stream-side cover<br /></span> +<span class="i8">By the grasp of a love like death.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For a God's was the mouth that kissed her<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 5.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Who speaks, and the leaves lie dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">When winter awakes as at warning<br /></span><span class="linenum">210</span> +<span class="i8">To the sound of his foot from Thrace.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor happier the bed of her sister<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Though Love's self laid her abed<br /></span> +<span class="i6">By a bridegroom beloved of the morning<br /></span> +<span class="i8">And fair as the dawn's own face.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 5.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For Procris, ensnared and ensnaring<br /></span> +<span class="i4">By the fraud of a twofold wile,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">With the point of her own spear stricken<br /></span> +<span class="i8">By the gift of her own hand fell.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Oversubtle in doubts, overdaring<br /></span><span class="linenum">220</span> +<span class="i4">In deeds and devices of guile,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And strong to quench as to quicken,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">O Love, have we named thee well?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 6.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By thee was the spear's edge whetted<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That laid her dead in the dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">In the moist green glens of the midland<br /></span> +<span class="i8">By her dear lord slain and thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And him at the cliff's end fretted<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +<span class="i4">By the grey keen waves, him too,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Thine hand from the white-browed headland<br /></span><span class="linenum">230</span> +<span class="i8">Flung down for a spoil to the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 6.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But enough now of griefs grey-growing<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Have darkened the house divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Have flowered on its boughs and faded,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">And green is the brave stock yet.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O father all-seeing and all-knowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Let the last fruit fall not of thine<br /></span> +<span class="i6">From the tree with whose boughs we are shaded,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">From the stock that thy son's hand set.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O daughter of Cephisus, from all time<br /></span><span class="linenum">240</span> +<span class="i0">Wise have I found thee, wife and queen, of heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perfect; nor in the days that knew not wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor days when storm blew death upon our peace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was thine heart swoln with seed of pride, or bowed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With blasts of bitter fear that break men's souls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who lift too high their minds toward heaven, in thought<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Too godlike grown for worship; but of mood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Equal, in good time reverent of time bad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glad in ill days of the good that were.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor now too would I fear thee, now misdoubt<br /></span><span class="linenum">250</span> +<span class="i0">Lest fate should find thee lesser than thy doom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chosen if thou be to bear and to be great<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Haply beyond all women; and the word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speaks thee divine, dear queen, that speaks thee dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead being alive, or quick and dead in one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall not men call thee living? yet I fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To slay thee timeless with my proper tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lips, thou knowest, that love thee; and such work<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was never laid of Gods on men, such word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No mouth of man learnt ever, as from mine<br /></span><span class="linenum">260</span> +<span class="i0">Most loth to speak thine ear most loth shall take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hold it hateful as the grave to hear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That word there is not in all speech of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">King, that being spoken of the Gods and thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have not heart to honour, or dare hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than I hold thee or the Gods in hate<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Hearing; but if my heart abhor it heard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Being insubmissive, hold me not thy wife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But use me like a stranger, whom thine hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath fed by chance and finding thence no thanks<br /></span><span class="linenum">270</span> +<span class="i0">Flung off for shame's sake to forgetfulness.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O, of what breath shall such a word be made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or from what heart find utterance? Would my tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were rent forth rather from the quivering root<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than made as fire or poison thus for thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But if thou speak of blood, and I that hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be chosen of all for this land's love to die<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And save to thee thy city, know this well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Happiest I hold me of her seed alive.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O sun that seest, what saying was this of thine,<br /></span><span class="linenum">280</span> +<span class="i0">God, that thy power has breathed into my lips?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For from no sunlit shrine darkling it came.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What portent from the mid oracular place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath smitten thee so like a curse that flies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wingless, to waste men with its plagues? yet speak.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy blood the Gods require not; take this first.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To me than thee more grievous this should sound.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That word rang truer and bitterer than it knew.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This is not then thy grief, to see me die?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Die shalt thou not, yet give thy blood to death.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">290</span> +<span class="i0">If this ring worse I know not; strange it rang.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas, thou knowest not; woe is me that know.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And woe shall mine be, knowing; yet halt not here.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Guiltless of blood this state may stand no more.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Firm let it stand whatever bleed or fall.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Gods, that I should say it shall and weep.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Weep, and say this? no tears should bathe such words.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Woe's me that I must weep upon them, woe.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What stain is on them for thy tears to cleanse?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A stain of blood unpurgeable with tears.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">300</span> +<span class="i0">Whence? for thou sayest it is and is not mine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hear then and know why only of all men I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bring such news as mine is, I alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must wash good words with weeping; I and thou,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woman, must wail to hear men sing, must groan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see their joy who love us; all our friends<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save only we, and all save we that love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This holiness of Athens, in our sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall lift their hearts up, in our hearing praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gods whom we may not; for to these they give<br /></span> +<span class="linenum">310</span> +<span class="i0">Life of their children, flower of all their seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all their travail fruit, for all their hopes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harvest; but we for all our good things, we<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have at their hands which fill all these folk full<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death, barrenness, child-slaughter, curses, cares,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sea-leaguer and land-shipwreck; which of these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which wilt thou first give thanks for? all are thine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What first they give who give this city good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For that first given to save it I give thanks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First, and thanks heartier from a happier tongue,<br /></span><span class="linenum">320</span> +<span class="i0">More than for any my peculiar grace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shown me and not my country; next for this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That none of all these but for all these I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must bear my burden, and no eye but mine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weep of all women's in this broad land born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who see their land's deliverance; but much more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But most for this I thank them most of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That this their edge of doom is chosen to pierce<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart and not my country's; for the sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drawn to smite there and sharpened for such stroke<br /></span><span class="linenum">330</span> +<span class="i0">Should wound more deep than any turned on me.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Well fares the land that bears such fruit, and well<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spirit that breeds such thought and speech in man.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O woman, thou hast shamed my heart with thine,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To show so strong a patience; take then all;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all shall break not nor bring down thy soul.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The word that journeying to the bright God's shrine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who speaks askance and darkling, but his name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath in it slaying and ruin broad writ out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I heard, hear thou: thus saith he; There shall die<br /></span><span class="linenum">340</span> +<span class="i0">One soul for all this people; from thy womb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came forth the seed that here on dry bare ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death's hand must sow untimely, to bring forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor blade nor shoot in season, being by name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the under Gods made holy, who require<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this land's life her death and maiden blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To save a maiden city. Thus I heard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus with all said leave thee; for save this<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No word is left us, and no hope alive.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hath uttered too surely his wrath not obscurely, nor wrapt as in mists of his breath,<br /></span><span class="linenum">350</span> +<span class="i0">The master that lightens not hearts he enlightens, but gives them foreknowledge of death.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As a bolt from the cloud hath he sent it aloud and proclaimed it afar,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +<span class="i2">From the darkness and height of the horror of night hath he shown us a star.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Star may I name it and err not, or flame shall I say,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Born of the womb that was born for the tomb of the day?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Night, whom other but thee for mother, and Death for the father, Night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall we dream to discover, save thee and thy lover, to bring such a sorrow to sight?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the slumberless bed for thy bedfellow spread and his bride under earth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hast thou brought forth a wild and insatiable child, an unbearable birth.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Fierce are the fangs of his wrath, and the pangs that they give;<br /></span><span class="linenum">360</span> +<span class="i4">None is there, none that may bear them, not one that would live.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Forth of the fine-spun folds of veils that hide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My virgin chamber toward the full-faced sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I set my foot not moved of mine own will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unmaidenlike, nor with unprompted speed<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Turn eyes too broad or doglike unabashed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On reverend heads of men and thence on thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mother, now covered from the light and bowed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As hers who mourns her brethren; but what grief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bends thy blind head thus earthward, holds thus mute,<br /></span><span class="linenum">370</span> +<span class="i0">I know not till thy will be to lift up<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Toward mine thy sorrow-muffled eyes and speak;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And till thy will be would I know this not.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Old men and childless, or if sons ye have seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And daughters, elder-born were these than mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look on this child, how young of years, how sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How scant of time and green of age her life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Puts forth its flower of girlhood; and her gait<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How virginal, how soft her speech, her eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How seemly smiling; wise should all ye be,<br /></span><span class="linenum">380</span> +<span class="i0">All honourable and kindly men of age;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now give me counsel and one word to say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I may bear to speak, and hold my peace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Henceforth for all time even as all ye now.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dumb are ye all, bowed eyes and tongueless mouths,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Unprofitable; if this were wind that speaks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As much its breath might move you. Thou then, child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set thy sweet eyes on mine; look through them well;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take note of all the writing of my face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As of a tablet or a tomb inscribed<br /></span><span class="linenum">390</span> +<span class="i0">That bears me record; lifeless now, my life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereon that was think written; brief to read,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet shall the scripture sear thine eyes as fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leave them dark as dead men's. Nay, dear child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast no skill, my maiden, and no sense<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To take such knowledge; sweet is all thy lore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all this bitter; yet I charge thee learn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And love and lay this up within thine heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even this my word; less ill it were to die<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than live and look upon thy mother dead,<br /></span><span class="linenum">400</span> +<span class="i0">Thy mother-land that bare thee; no man slain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But him who hath seen it shall men count unblest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None blest as him who hath died and seen it not.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That sight some God keep from me though I die.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A God from thee shall keep it; fear not this.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thanks all my life long shall he gain of mine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Short gain of all yet shall he get of thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Brief be my life, yet so long live my thanks.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So long? so little; how long shall they live?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Even while I see the sunlight and thine eyes.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">410</span> +<span class="i0">Would mine might shut ere thine upon the sun.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For me thou prayest unkindly; change that prayer.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not well for me thou sayest, and ill for thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nay, for me well, if thou shalt live, not I.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How live, and lose these loving looks of thine?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It seems I too, thus praying, then, love thee not.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lov'st thou not life? what wouldst thou do to die?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Well, but not more than all things, love I life.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And fain wouldst keep it as thine age allows?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fain would I live, and fain not fear to die.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">420</span> +<span class="i0">That I might bid thee die not! Peace; no more.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A godlike race of grief the Gods have set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these to run matched equal, heart with heart.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Child of the chief of Gods, and maiden crowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Queen of these towers and fostress of their king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pallas, and thou my father's holiest head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A living well of life nor stanched nor stained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O God Cephisus, thee too charge I next,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be to me judge and witness; nor thine ear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall now my tongue invoke not, thou to me<br /></span><span class="linenum">430</span> +<span class="i0">Most hateful of things holy, mournfullest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all old sacred streams that wash the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ilissus, on whose marge at flowery play<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A whirlwind-footed bridegroom found my child<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rapt her northward where mine elder-born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keeps now the Thracian bride-bed of a God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Intolerable to seamen, but this land<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Finds him in hope for her sake favourable,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gracious son by wedlock; hear me then<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou likewise, if with no faint heart or false<br /></span><span class="linenum">440</span> +<span class="i0">The word I say be said, the gift be given,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which might I choose I had rather die than give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or speak and die not. Ere thy limbs were made<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or thine eyes lightened, strife, thou knowest, my child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twixt God and God had risen, which heavenlier name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should here stand hallowed, whose more liberal grace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should win this city's worship, and our land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To which of these do reverence; first the lord<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose wheels make lightnings of the foam-flowered sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here on this rock, whose height brow-bound with dawn<br /></span><span class="linenum">450</span> +<span class="i0">Is head and heart of Athens, one sheer blow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Struck, and beneath the triple wound that shook<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stony sinews and stark roots of the earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sprang toward the sun a sharp salt fount, and sank<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where lying it lights the heart up of the hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A well of bright strange brine; but she that reared<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy father with her same chaste fostering hand<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Set for a sign against it in our guard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The holy bloom of the olive, whose hoar leaf<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High in the shadowy shrine of Pandrosus<br /></span><span class="linenum">460</span> +<span class="i0">Hath honour of us all; and of this strife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The twelve most high Gods judging with one mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Acclaimed her victress; wroth whereat, as wronged<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That she should hold from him such prize and place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The strong king of the tempest-rifted sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loosed reinless on the low Thriasian plain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thunders of his chariots, swallowing stunned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth, beasts, and men, the whole blind foundering world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That was the sun's at morning, and ere noon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death's; nor this only prey fulfilled his mind;<br /></span><span class="linenum">470</span> +<span class="i0">For with strange crook-toothed prows of Carian folk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who snatch a sanguine life out of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thieves keen to pluck their bloody fruit of spoil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the grey fruitless waters, has their God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Furrowed our shores to waste them, as the fields<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were landward harried from the north with swords<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aonian, sickles of man-slaughtering edge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ground for no hopeful harvest of live grain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against us in Bœotia; these being spent,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Now this third time his wind of wrath has blown<br /></span><span class="linenum">480</span> +<span class="i0">Right on this people a mightier wave of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three times more huge a ruin; such its ridge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foam-rimmed and hollow like the womb of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But black for shining, and with death for life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Big now to birth and ripe with child, full-blown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fear and fruit of havoc, takes the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of our eyes, darkening the day, and blinds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fair sky's face unseasonably with change,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A cloud in one and billow of battle, a surge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High reared as heaven with monstrous surf of spears<br /></span><span class="linenum">490</span> +<span class="i0">That shake on us their shadow, till men's heads<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bend, and their hearts even with its forward wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wither, so blasts all seed in them of hope<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its breath and blight of presage; yea, even now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The winter of this wind out of the deeps<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Makes cold our trust in comfort of the Gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blind our eye toward outlook; yet not here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here never shall the Thracian plant on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ours his father's symbol, nor with wreaths<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A strange folk wreathe it upright set and crowned<br /></span><span class="linenum">500</span> +<span class="i0">Here where our natural people born behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The golden Gorgon of the shield's defence<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +<span class="i0">That screens their flowering olive, nor strange Gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be graced, and Pallas here have praise no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if this be not I must give my child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee, mine own very blood and spirit of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee to be slain. Turn from me, turn thine eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little from me; I can bear not yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see if still they smile on mine or no,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If fear make faint the light in them, or faith<br /></span><span class="linenum">510</span> +<span class="i0">Fix them as stars of safety. Need have we,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore need of stars that set not in mid storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lights that outlast the lightnings; yet my heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Endures not to make proof of thine or these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not yet to know thee whom I made, and bare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What manner of woman; had I borne thee man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had made no question of thine eyes or heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor spared to read the scriptures in them writ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wert thou my son; yet couldst thou then but die<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fallen in sheer fight by chance and charge of spears<br /></span><span class="linenum">520</span> +<span class="i0">And have no more of memory, fill no tomb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More famous than thy fellows in fair field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where many share the grave, many the praise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But one crown shall one only girl my child<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wear, dead for this dear city, and give back life<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To him that gave her and to me that bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And save two sisters living; and all this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is this not all good? I shall give thee, child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee but by fleshly nature mine, to bleed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For dear land's love; but if the city fall<br /></span><span class="linenum">530</span> +<span class="i0">What part is left me in my children then?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if it stand and thou for it lie dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then hast thou in it a better part than we,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A holier portion than we all; for each<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath but the length of his own life to live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this most glorious mother-land on earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To worship till that life have end; but thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath end no more than hers; thou, dead, shalt live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till Athens live not; for the days and nights<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Given of thy bare brief dark dividual life,<br /></span><span class="linenum">540</span> +<span class="i0">Shall she give thee half all her agelong own<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all its glory; for thou givest her these;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with one hand she takes and gives again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than I gave or she requires of thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come therefore, I will make thee fit for death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I that could give thee, dear, no gift at birth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save of light life that breathes and bleeds, even I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will help thee to this better gift than mine<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And lead thee by this little living hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That death shall make so strong, to that great end<br /></span><span class="linenum">550</span> +<span class="i0">Whence it shall lighten like a God's, and strike<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead the strong heart of battle that would break<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Athens; but ye, pray for this land, old men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it may bring forth never child on earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To love it less, for none may more, than we.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Out of the north wind grief came forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the shining of a sword out of the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yea, of old the first-blown blast blew the prelude of this last,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The blast of his trumpet upon Rhodope.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Out of the north skies full of his cloud,<br /></span><span class="linenum">560</span> +<span class="i2">With the clamour of his storms as of a crowd<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At the wheels of a great king crying aloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At the axle of a strong king's car<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That has girded on the girdle of war—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With hands that lightened the skies in sunder<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And feet whose fall was followed of thunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">A God, a great God strange of name,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +<span class="i4">With horse-yoke fleeter-hoofed than flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To the mountain bed of a maiden came,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Oreithyia, the bride mismated,<br /></span><span class="linenum">570</span> +<span class="i2">Wofully wed in a snow-strewn bed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a bridegroom that kisses the bride's mouth dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Without garland, without glory, without song,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As a fawn by night on the hills belated,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Given over for a spoil unto the strong.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From lips how pale so keen a wail<br /></span> +<span class="i4">At the grasp of a God's hand on her she gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When his breath that darkens air made a havoc of her hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">It rang from the mountain even to the wave;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rang with a cry, <i>Woe's me, woe is me!</i><br /></span><span class="linenum">580</span> +<span class="i2">From the darkness upon Hæmus to the sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And with hands that clung to her new lord's knee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As a virgin overborne with shame,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She besought him by her spouseless fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By the blameless breasts of a maid unmarried<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And locks unmaidenly rent and harried,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And all her flower of body, born<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To match the maidenhood of morn,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +<span class="i2">With the might of the wind's wrath wrenched and torn.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Vain, all vain as a dead man's vision<br /></span><span class="linenum">590</span> +<span class="i2">Falling by night in his old friends' sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To be scattered with slumber and slain ere light;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Such a breath of such a bridegroom in that hour<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of her prayers made mock, of her fears derision,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And a ravage of her youth as of a flower.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a leap of his limbs as a lion's, a cry from his lips as of thunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In a storm of amorous godhead filled with fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the height of the heaven that was rent with the roar of his coming in sunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sprang the strong God on the spoil of his desire.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the pines of the hills were as green reeds shattered,<br /></span><span class="linenum">600</span> +<span class="i2">And their branches as buds of the soft spring scattered,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the west wind and east, and the sound of the south,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fell dumb at the blast of the north wind's mouth,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">At the cry of his coming out of heaven.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +<span class="i2">And the wild beasts quailed in the rifts and hollows<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where hound nor clarion of huntsman follows,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the depths of the sea were aghast, and whitened,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the crowns of their waves were as flame that lightened,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the heart of the floods thereof was riven.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she knew not him coming for terror, she felt not her wrong that he wrought her,<br /></span><span class="linenum">610</span> +<span class="i2">When her locks as leaves were shed before his breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she heard not for terror his prayer, though the cry was a God's that besought her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Blown from lips that strew the world-wide seas with death.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the heart was molten within her to hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And her knees beneath her were loosened for fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And her blood fast bound as a frost-bound water,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the soft new bloom of the green earth's daughter<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Wind-wasted as blossom of a tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the wild God rapt her from earth's breast lifted,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +<span class="i2">On the strength of the stream of his dark breath drifted,<br /></span><span class="linenum">620</span> +<span class="i2">From the bosom of earth as a bride from the mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With storm for bridesman and wreck for brother,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">As a cloud that he sheds upon the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Epode.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i6">Of this hoary-headed woe<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Song made memory long ago;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Now a younger grief to mourn<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Needs a new song younger born.<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Who shall teach our tongues to reach<br /></span> +<span class="i6">What strange height of saddest speech,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For the new bride's sake that is given to be<br /></span><span class="linenum">630</span> +<span class="i4">A stay to fetter the foot of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Lest it quite spurn down and trample the town,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Ere the violets be dead that were plucked for its crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Or its olive-leaf whiten and wither?<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Who shall say of the wind's way<br /></span> +<span class="i6">That he journeyed yesterday,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Or the track of the storm that shall sound to-morrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">If the new be more than the grey-grown sorrow?<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +<span class="i4">For the wind of the green first season was keen,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the blast shall be sharper than blew between<br /></span><span class="linenum">640</span> +<span class="i8">That the breath of the sea blows hither.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Old men, grey borderers on the march of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tongue-fighters, tough of talk and sinewy speech,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Else nerveless, from no crew of such faint folk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose tongues are stouter than their hands come I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bid not you to battle; let them strike<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose swords are sharper than your keen-tongued wail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ye, sit fast and sorrow; but what man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all this land-folk and earth-labouring herd<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For heart or hand seems foremost, him I call<br /></span><span class="linenum">650</span> +<span class="i0">If heart be his to hearken, him bid forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To try if one be in the sun's sight born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all that grope and grovel on dry ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That may join hands in battle-grip for death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With them whose seed and strength is of the sea.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Know thou this much for all thy loud blast blown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We lack not hands to speak with, swords to plead,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +<span class="i0">For proof of peril, not of boisterous breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sea-wind and storm of barren mouths that foam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rough rock's edge of menace; and short space<br /></span> +<span class="linenum">660</span> +<span class="i0">May lesson thy large ignorance and inform<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This insolence with knowledge if there live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men earth-begotten of no tenderer thews<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than knit the great joints of the grim sea's brood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hasps of steel together; heaven to help,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One man shall break, even on their own flood's verge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That iron bulk of battle; but thine eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sees it now swell higher than sand or shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Haply shall see not when thine host shall shrink.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not haply, nay, but surely, shall not thine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">670</span> +<span class="i0">That lot shall no God give who fights for thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shall Gods bear bit and bridle, fool, of men?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor them forbid we nor shalt thou constrain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet say'st thou none shall make the good lot mine?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of thy side none, nor moved for fear of thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gods hast thou then to baffle Gods of ours?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor thine nor mine, but equal-souled are they.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Toward good and ill, then, equal-eyed of soul?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nay, but swift-eyed to note where ill thoughts breed.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy shaft word-feathered flies yet far of me.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">680</span> +<span class="i0">Pride knows not, wounded, till the heart be cleft.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No shaft wounds deep whose wing is plumed with words.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lay that to heart, and bid thy tongue learn grace.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Grace shall thine own crave soon too late of mine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Boast thou till then, but I wage words no more.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man, what shrill wind of speech and wrangling air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blows in our ears a summons from thy lips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winged with what message, or what gift or grace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Requiring? none but what his hand may take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here may the foe think hence to reap, nor this<br /></span><span class="linenum">690</span> +<span class="i0">Except some doom from Godward yield it him.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>HERALD OF EUMOLPUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">King of this land-folk, by my mouth to thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus saith the son of him that shakes thine earth,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Eumolpus; now the stakes of war are set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For land or sea to win by throw and wear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Choose therefore or to quit thy side and give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The palm unfought for to his bloodless hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or by that father's sceptre, and the foot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose tramp far off makes tremble for pure fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy soul-struck mother, piercing like a sword<br /></span><span class="linenum">700</span> +<span class="i0">The immortal womb that bare thee; by the waves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That no man bridles and that bound thy world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the winds and storms of all the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He swears to raze from eyeshot of the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This city named not of his father's name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wash to deathward down one flood of doom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This whole fresh brood of earth yeaned naturally,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Green yet and faint in its first blade, unblown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With yellow hope of harvest; so do thou,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeing whom thy time is come to meet, for fear<br /></span><span class="linenum">710</span> +<span class="i0">Yield, or gird up thy force to fight and die.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ERECHTHEUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To fight then be it; for if to die or live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No man but only a God knows this much yet<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Seeing us fare forth, who bear but in our hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The weapons not the fortunes of our fight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these now rest as lots that yet undrawn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie in the lap of the unknown hour; but this<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know, not thou, whose hollow mouth of storm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is but a warlike wind, a sharp salt breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bites and wounds not; death nor life of mine<br /></span><span class="linenum">720</span> +<span class="i0">Shall give to death or lordship of strange kings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soul of this live city, nor their heel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bruise her dear brow discrowned, nor snaffle or goad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wound her free mouth or stain her sanguine side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet masterless of man; so bid thy lord<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Learn ere he weep to learn it, and too late<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gnash teeth that could not fasten on her flesh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And foam his life out in dark froth of blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vain as a wind's waif of the loud-mouthed sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Torn from the wave's edge whitening. Tell him this;<br /></span><span class="linenum">730</span> +<span class="i0">Though thrice his might were mustered for our scathe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thicker set with fence of thorn-edged spears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than sands are whirled about the wintering beach<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +<span class="i0">When storms have swoln the rivers, and their blasts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have breached the broad sea-banks with stress of sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That waves of inland and the main make war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As men that mix and grapple; though his ranks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were more to number than all wildwood leaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wind waves on the hills of all the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet should the heart not faint, the head not fall,<br /></span><span class="linenum">740</span> +<span class="i0">The breath not fail of Athens. Say, the Gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From lips that have no more on earth to say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have told thee this the last good news or ill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I shall speak in sight of earth and sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or he shall hear and see them: for the next<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ear of his from tongue of mine may take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must be the first word spoken underground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From dead to dead in darkness. Hence; make haste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest war's fleet foot be swifter than thy tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I that part not to return again<br /></span><span class="linenum">750</span> +<span class="i0">On him that comes not to depart away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be fallen before thee; for the time is full,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with such mortal hope as knows not fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I go this high last way to the end of all.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who shall put a bridle in the mourner's lips to chasten them,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or seal up the fountains of his tears for shame?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Song nor prayer nor prophecy shall slacken tears nor hasten them,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till grief be within him as a burnt-out flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Till the passion be broken in his breast<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And the might thereof molten into rest,<br /></span><span class="linenum">760</span> +<span class="i4">And the rain of eyes that weep be dry,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the breath be stilled of lips that sigh.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death at last for all men is a harbour; yet they flee from it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Set sails to the storm-wind and again to sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet for all their labour no whit further shall they be from it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor longer but wearier shall their life's work be.<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And with anguish of travail until night<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Shall they steer into shipwreck out of sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And with oars that break and shrouds that strain<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Shall they drive whence no ship steers again.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 2.<br /></span><span class="linenum">770</span> +<span class="i0">Bitter and strange is the word of the God most high,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And steep the strait of his way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through a pass rock-rimmed and narrow the light that gleams<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the faces of men falls faint as the dawn of dreams,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dayspring of death as a star in an under sky<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Where night is the dead men's day.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As darkness and storm is his will that on earth is done,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">As a cloud is the face of his strength.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">King of kings, holiest of holies, and mightiest of might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lord of the lords of thine heaven that are humble in thy sight,<br /></span><span class="linenum">780</span> +<span class="i0">Hast thou set not an end for the path of the fires of the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">To appoint him a rest at length?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 3.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast thou told not by measure the waves of the waste wide sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the ways of the wind their master and thrall to thee?<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +<span class="i6">Hast thou filled not the furrows with fruit for the world's increase?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has thine ear not heard from of old or thine eye not read<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thought and the deed of us living, the doom of us dead?<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Hast thou made not war upon earth, and again made peace?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 3.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore, O father, that seest us whose lives are a breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take off us thy burden, and give us not wholly to death.<br /></span><span class="linenum">790</span> +<span class="i6">For lovely is life, and the law wherein all things live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gracious the season of each, and the hour of its kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And precious the seed of his life in a wise man's mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">But all save life for his life will a base man give.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 4.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But a life that is given for the life of the whole live land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From a heart unspotted a gift of a spotless hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of pure will perfect and free, for the land's life's sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What man shall fear not to put forth his hand and take?<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 4.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the fruit of a sweet life plucked in its pure green prime<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On his hand who plucks is as blood, on his soul as crime.<br /></span><span class="linenum">800</span> +<span class="i0">With cursing ye buy not blessing, nor peace with strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the hand is hateful that chaffers with death for life.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 5.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Hast thou heard, O my heart, and endurest<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The word that is said,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">What a garland by sentence found surest<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Is wrought for what head?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With what blossomless flowerage of sea-foam and blood-coloured foliage inwound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It shall crown as a heifer's for slaughter the forehead for marriage uncrowned?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 5.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">How the veils and the wreaths that should cover<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The brows of the bride<br /></span><span class="linenum">810</span> +<span class="i4">Shall be shed by the breath of what lover<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And scattered aside?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a blast of the mouth of what bridegroom the crowns shall be cast from her hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her head by what altar made humble be left of them naked and bare?<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 6.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At a shrine unbeloved of a God unbeholden a gift shall be given for the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That its ramparts though shaken with clamour and horror of manifold waters may stand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the crests of its citadels crowned and its turrets that thrust up their heads to the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May behold him unblinded with darkness of waves overmastering their bulwarks begun.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 6.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a bride shall they bring her, a prey for the bridegroom, a flower for the couch of her lord;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall muffle her mouth that she cry not or curse them, and cover her eyes from the sword.<br /></span><span class="linenum">820</span> +<span class="i0">They shall fasten her lips as with bit and with bridle, and darken the light of her face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the soul of the slayer may not falter, his heart be not molten, his hand give not grace.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 7.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If she weep then, yet may none that hear take pity;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">If she cry not, none should hearken though she cried.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall a virgin shield thine head for love, O city,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">With a virgin's blood anointed as for pride?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 7.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet we held thee dear and hallowed of her favour,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Dear of all men held thy people to her heart;<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Nought she loves the breath of blood, the sanguine savour,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Who hath built with us her throne and chosen her part.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Epode.</i><br /></span><span class="linenum">830</span> +<span class="i6">Bloodless are her works, and sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i6">All the ways that feel her feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">From the empire of her eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Light takes life and darkness flies;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">From the harvest of her hands<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Wealth strikes root in prosperous lands;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Wisdom of her word is made;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">At her strength is strength afraid;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">From the beam of her bright spear<br /></span> +<span class="i6">War's fleet foot goes back for fear;<br /></span><span class="linenum">840</span> +<span class="i6">In her shrine she reared the birth<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Fire-begotten on live earth;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Glory from her helm was shed<br /></span> +<span class="i6">On his olive-shadowed head;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">By no hand but his shall she<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Scourge the storms back of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">To no fame but his shall give<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Grace, being dead, with hers to live,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And in double name divine<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Half the godhead of their shrine.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span><span class="linenum">850</span> +<span class="i0">But now with what word, with what woe may we meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The timeless passage of piteous feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hither that bend to the last way's end<br /></span> +<span class="i4">They shall walk upon earth?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What song be rolled for a bride black-stoled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the mother whose hand of her hand hath hold?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For anguish of heart is my soul's strength broken<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the tongue sealed fast that would fain have spoken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To behold thee, O child of so bitter a birth<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That we counted so sweet,<br /></span><span class="linenum">860</span> +<span class="i0">What way thy steps to what bride-feast tend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What gift he must give that shall wed thee for token<br /></span> +<span class="i4">If the bridegroom be goodly to greet.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">People, old men of my city, lordly wise and hoar of head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I a spouseless bride and crownless but with garlands of the dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the fruitful light turn silent to my dark unchilded bed.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wise of word was he too surely, but with deadlier wisdom wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First who gave thee name from under earth, no breath from upper skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, foredoomed to this day's darkness, their first daylight filled thine eyes.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Child, my child that wast and art but death's and now no more of mine,<br /></span><span class="linenum">870</span> +<span class="i0">Half my heart is cloven with anguish by the sword made sharp for thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half exalts its wing for triumph, that I bare thee thus divine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though for me the sword's edge thirst that sets no point against thy breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mother, O my mother, where I drank of life and fell on rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine, not mine, is all the grief that marks this hour accurst and blest.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweet thy sleep and sweet the bosom was that gave thee sleep and birth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harder now the breast, and girded with no marriage-band for girth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where thine head shall sleep, the namechild of the lords of under earth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dark the name and dark the gifts they gave thee, child, in childbirth were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sprung from him that rent the womb of earth, a bitter seed to bear,<br /></span><span class="linenum">880</span> +<span class="i0">Born with groanings of the ground that gave him way toward heaven's dear air.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Day to day makes answer, first to last, and life to death; but I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Born for death's sake, die for life's sake, if indeed this be to die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This my doom that seals me deathless till the springs of time run dry.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Children shalt thou bear to memory, that to man shalt bring forth none;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, the lordliest that lift eyes and hearts and songs to meet the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Names to fire men's ears like music till the round world's race be run.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I thy mother, named of Gods that wreak revenge and brand with blame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now for thy love shall be loved as thou, and famous with thy fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While this city's name on earth shall be for earth her mightiest name.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><span class="linenum">890</span> +<span class="i0">That I may give this poor girl's blood of mine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce yet sun-warmed with summer, this thin life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still green with flowerless growth of seedling days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To build again my city; that no drop<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fallen of these innocent veins on the cold ground<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +<span class="i0">But shall help knit the joints of her firm walls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To knead the stones together, and make sure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The band about her maiden girdlestead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once fastened, and of all men's violent hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inviolable for ever; these to me<br /></span><span class="linenum">900</span> +<span class="i0">Were no such gifts as crave no thanksgiving,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If with one blow dividing the sheer life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I might make end, and one pang wind up all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seal mine eyes from sorrow; for such end<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods give none they love not; but my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That leaps up lightened of all sloth or fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To take the sword's point, yet with one thought's load<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flags, and falls back, broken of wing, that halts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maimed in mid flight for thy sake and borne down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mother, that in the places where I played<br /></span><span class="linenum">910</span> +<span class="i0">An arm's length from thy bosom and no more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shalt find me never, nor thine eye wax glad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mix with mine its eyesight and for love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laugh without word, filled with sweet light, and speak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Divine dumb things of the inward spirit and heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moved silently; nor hand or lip again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touch hand or lip of either, but for mine<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Shall thine meet only shadows of swift night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dreams and dead thoughts of dead things; and the bed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou strewedst, a sterile place for all time, strewn<br /></span><span class="linenum">920</span> +<span class="i0">For my sleep only, with its void sad sheets<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall vex thee, and the unfruitful coverlid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For empty days reproach me dead, that leave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No profit of my body, but am gone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one not worth being born to bear no seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sapless stock and branchless; yet thy womb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall want not honour of me, that brought forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all this people freedom, and for earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the unborn city born out of my blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To light the face of all men evermore<br /></span><span class="linenum">930</span> +<span class="i0">Glory; but lay thou this to thy great heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereunder in the dark of birth conceived<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine unlit life lay girdled with the zone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bound thy bridal bosom; set this thought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against all edge of evil as a sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To beat back sorrow, that for all the world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou brought'st me forth a saviour, who shall save<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Athens; for none but I from none but thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall take this death for garland; and the men<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Mine unknown children of unsounded years,<br /></span><span class="linenum">940</span> +<span class="i0">My sons unrisen shall rise up at thine hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sown of thy seed to bring forth seed to thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And call thee most of all most fruitful found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blessed; but me too for my barren womb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than my sisters for their children born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall these give honour, yea in scorn's own place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall men set love and bring for mockery praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thanks for curses; for the dry wild vine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scoffed at and cursed of all men that was I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall shed them wine to make the world's heart warm,<br /></span><span class="linenum">950</span> +<span class="i0">That all eyes seeing may lighten, and all ears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear and be kindled; such a draught to drink<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall be the blood that bids this dust bring forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The chaliced life here spilt on this mine earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine, my great father's mother; whom I pray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take me now gently, tenderly take home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And softly lay in his my cold chaste hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who is called of men by my name, being of Gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Charged only and chosen to bring men under earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now must lead and stay me with his staff<br /></span><span class="linenum">960</span> +<span class="i0">A silent soul led of a silent God,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Toward sightless things led sightless; and on earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see now but the shadow of mine end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this last light of all for me in heaven.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Farewell I bid thee; so bid thou not me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest the Gods hear and mock us; yet on these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I lay the weight not of this grief, nor cast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ill words for ill deeds back; for if one say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They have done men wrong, what hurt have they to hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or he what help to have said it? surely, child,<br /></span><span class="linenum">970</span> +<span class="i0">If one among men born might say it and live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blameless, none more than I may, who being vexed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hold yet my peace; for now through tears enough<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine eyes have seen the sun that from this day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine shall see never more; and in the night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enough has blown of evil, and mine ears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wail enough the winds have filled, and brought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too much of cloud from over the sharp sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mar for me the morning; such a blast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rent from these wide void arms and helpless breast<br /></span><span class="linenum">980</span> +<span class="i0">Long since one graft of me disbranched, and bore<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond the wild ways of the unwandered world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And loud wastes of the thunder-throated sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Springs of the night and openings of the heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old garden of the Sun; whence never more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From west or east shall winds bring back that blow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From folds of opening heaven or founts of night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flower of mine once ravished, born my child<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bear strange children; nor on wings of theirs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall comfort come back to me, nor their sire<br /></span><span class="linenum">990</span> +<span class="i0">Breathe help upon my peril, nor his strength<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Raise up my weakness; but of Gods and men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I drift unsteered on ruin, and the wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Darkens my head with imminent height, and hangs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dumb, filled too full with thunder that shall leave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These ears death-deafened when the tide finds tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all its wrath bears on them; thee, O child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I help not, nor am holpen; fain, ah fain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than was ever mother born of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were I to help thee; fain beyond all prayer,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1000</span> +<span class="i0">Beyond all thought fain to redeem thee, torn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More timeless from me sorrowing than the dream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That was thy sister; so shalt thou be too,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou but a vision, shadow-shaped of sleep,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +<span class="i0">By grief made out of nothing; now but once<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I touch, but once more hold thee, one more kiss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This last time and none other ever more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave on thy lips and leave them. Go; thou wast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart, my heart's blood, life-blood of my life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My child, my nursling; now this breast once thine<br /></span><span class="linenum">1010</span> +<span class="i0">Shall rear again no children; never now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall any mortal blossom born like thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie there, nor ever with small silent mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Draw the sweet springs dry for an hour that feed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blind blithe life that knows not; never head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rest here to make these cold veins warm, nor eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laugh itself open with the lips that reach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lovingly toward a fount more loving; these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death makes as all good lesser things now dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the latter hopes that flowered from these<br /></span><span class="linenum">1020</span> +<span class="i0">And fall as these fell fruitless; no joy more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall man take of thy maidenhood, no tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Praise it; no good shall eyes get more of thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That lightened for thy love's sake. Now, take note,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give ear, O all ye people, that my word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May pierce your hearts through, and the stroke that cleaves<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Be fruitful to them; so shall all that hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grow great at heart with child of thought most high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bring forth seed in season; this my child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This flower of this my body, this sweet life,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1030</span> +<span class="i0">This fair live youth I give you, to be slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spent, shed, poured out, and perish; take my gift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give it death and the under Gods who crave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So much for that they give; for this is more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Much more is this than all we; for they give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Freedom, and for a blast, an air of breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little soul that is not, they give back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Light for all eyes, cheer for all hearts, and life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fills the world's width full of fame and praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mightier love than children's. This they give,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1040</span> +<span class="i0">The grace to make thy country great, and wrest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From time and death power to take hold on her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And strength to scathe for ever; and this gift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is this no more than man's love is or mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine and all mothers'? nay, where that seems more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where one loves life of child, wife, father, friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Son, husband, mother, more than this, even there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are all these lives worth nothing, all loves else<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With this love slain and buried, and their tomb<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +<span class="i0">A thing for shame to spit on; for what love<br /></span><span class="linenum">1050</span> +<span class="i0">Hath a slave left to love with? or the heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Base-born and bound in bondage fast to fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What should it do to love thee? what hath he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The man that hath no country? Gods nor men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have such to friend, yoked beast-like to base life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vile, fruitless, grovelling at the foot of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Landless and kinless thralls of no man's blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unchilded and unmothered, abject limbs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That breed things abject; but who loves on earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not friend, wife, husband, father, mother, child,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1060</span> +<span class="i0">Nor loves his own life for his own land's sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But only this thing most, more this than all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He loves all well and well of all is loved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this love lives for ever. See now, friends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My countrymen, my brothers, with what heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give you this that of your hands again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods require for Athens; as I give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So give ye to them what their hearts would have<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who shall give back things better; yea, and these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I take for me to witness, all these Gods,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1070</span> +<span class="i0">Were their great will more grievous than it is,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not one but three, for this one thin-spun thread<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +<span class="i0">A threefold band of children would I give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this land's love's sake; for whose love to-day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I bid thee, child, fare deathward and farewell.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O wofullest of women, yet of all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Happiest, thy word be hallowed; in all time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy name shall blossom, and from strange new tongues<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High things be spoken of thee; for such grace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods have dealt to no man, that on none<br /></span><span class="linenum">1080</span> +<span class="i0">Have laid so heavy sorrow. From this day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live thou assured of godhead in thy blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in thy fate no lowlier than a God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In all good things and evil; such a name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall be thy child this city's, and thine own<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Next hers that called it Athens. Go now forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blest, and grace with thee to the doors of death.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O city, O glory of Athens, O crown of my father's land, farewell.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">For welfare is given her of thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Goddess, be good to thy people, that in them dominion and freedom may dwell.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">1090</span> +<span class="i2">Turn from us the strengths of the sea.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let glory's and theirs be one name in the mouths of all nations made glad with the sun.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">For the cloud is blown back with thy breath.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With the long last love of mine eyes I salute thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">O land where my days now are done.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">But her life shall be born of thy death.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I put on me the darkness thy shadow, my mother, and symbol, O Earth, of my name.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">For thine was her witness from birth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In thy likeness I come to thee darkling, a daughter whose dawn and her even are the same.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Be thine heart to her gracious, O Earth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To thine own kind be kindly, for thy son's name's sake.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">1100</span> +<span class="i2">That sons unborn may praise thee and thy first-born son.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me thy sleep, who give thee all my life awake.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Too swift a sleep, ere half the web of day be spun.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Death brings the shears or ever life wind up the weft.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Their edge is ground and sharpened; who shall stay his hand?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The woof is thin, a small short life, with no thread left.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Yet hath it strength, stretched out, to shelter all the land.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Too frail a tent for covering, and a screen too strait.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Yet broad enough for buckler shall thy sweet life be.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A little bolt to bar off battle from the gate.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">1110</span> +<span class="i2">A wide sea-wall, that shatters the besieging sea.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHTHONIA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">I lift up mine eyes from the skirts of the shadow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the border of death to the limits of light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O streams and rivers of mountain and meadow<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That hallow the last of my sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">O father that wast of my mother<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Cephisus, O thou too his brother<br /></span> +<span class="i4">From the bloom of whose banks as a prey<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Winds harried my sister away,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">O crown on the world's head lying<br /></span><span class="linenum">1120</span> +<span class="i6">Too high for its waters to drown,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Take yet this one word of me dying,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">O city, O crown.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though land-wind and sea-wind with mouths that blow slaughter<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Should gird them to battle against thee again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New-born of the blood of a maiden thy daughter,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The rage of their breath shall be vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For their strength shall be quenched and made idle,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the foam of their mouths find a bridle,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the height of their heads bow down<br /></span><span class="linenum">1130</span> +<span class="i4">At the foot of the towers of the town.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +<span class="i4">Be blest and beloved as I love thee<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Of all that shall draw from thee breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Be thy life as the sun's is above thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i10">I go to my death.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Many loves of many a mood and many a kind<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fill the life of man, and mould the secret mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Many days bring many dooms, to loose and bind;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sweet is each in season, good the gift it brings,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sweet as change of night and day with altering wings,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1140</span> +<span class="i0">Night that lulls world-weary day, day that comforts night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Night that fills our eyes with sleep, day that fills with light.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">None of all is lovelier, loftier love is none,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Less is bride's for bridegroom, mother's less for son,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Child, than this that crowns and binds up all in one;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Love of thy sweet light, thy fostering breast and hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mother Earth, and city chosen, and natural land;<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Hills that bring the strong streams forth, heights of heavenlier air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fields aflower with winds and suns, woods with shadowing hair.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But none of the nations of men shall they liken to thee,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1150</span> +<span class="i0">Whose children true-born and the fruit of thy body are we.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rest are thy sons but in figure, in word are thy seed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We only the flower of thy travail, thy children indeed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of thy soil hast thou fashioned our limbs, of thy waters their blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the life of thy springs everlasting is fount of our flood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No wind oversea blew us hither adrift on thy shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None sowed us by land in thy womb that conceived us and bore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the stroke of the shaft of the sunlight that brought us to birth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pierced only and quickened thy furrows to bear us, O Earth.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +<span class="i0">With the beams of his love wast thou cloven as with iron or fire,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1160</span> +<span class="i0">And the life in thee yearned for his life, and grew great with desire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the hunger and thirst to be wounded and healed with his dart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made fruitful the love in thy veins and the depth of thine heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the showers out of heaven overflowing and liquid with love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fulfilled thee with child of his godhead as rain from above.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such desire had ye twain of each other, till molten in one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye might bear and beget of your bodies the fruits of the sun.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the trees in their season brought forth and were kindled anew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the warmth of the moisture of marriage, the child-bearing dew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the firstlings were fair of the wedlock of heaven and of earth;<br /></span><span class="linenum">1170</span> +<span class="i0">All countries were bounteous with blossom and burgeon of birth,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Green pastures of grass for all cattle, and life-giving corn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here of thy bosom, here only, the man-child was born.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All races but one are as aliens engrafted or sown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange children and changelings; but we, O our mother, thine own.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy nurslings are others, and seedlings they know not of whom;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these hast thou fostered, but us thou hast borne in thy womb.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who is he of us all, O beloved, that owe thee for birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who would give not his blood for his birth's sake, O mother, O Earth?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What landsman is he that was fostered and reared of thine hand<br /></span><span class="linenum">1180</span> +<span class="i0">Who may vaunt him as we may in death though he die for the land?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Well doth she therefore who gives thee in guerdon<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Epode.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bloom of the life of thy giving;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thy body was bowed by no fruitless burden,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That bore such fruit of thee living.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +<span class="i6">For her face was not darkened for fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">For her eyelids conceived not a tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Nor a cry from her lips craved pity;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">But her mouth was a fountain of song,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And her heart as a citadel strong<br /></span><span class="linenum">1190</span> +<span class="i8">That guards the heart of the city.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>MESSENGER.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">High things of strong-souled men that loved their land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On brass and stone are written, and their deeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On high days chanted; but none graven or sung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ever set men's eyes or spirits on fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Athenians, has the sun's height seen, or earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heard in her depth reverberate as from heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More worth men's praise and good report of Gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than here I bring for record in your ears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now being come to the altar, where as priest<br /></span><span class="linenum">1200</span> +<span class="i0">Death ministering should meet her, and his hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seal her sweet eyes asleep, the maiden stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With light in all her face as of a bride<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smiling, or shine of festal flame by night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far flung from towers of triumph; and her lips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trembled with pride in pleasure, that no fear<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Blanched them nor death before his time drank dry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blood whose bloom fulfilled them; for her cheeks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lightened, and brighter than a bridal veil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her hair enrobed her bosom and enrolled<br /></span><span class="linenum">1210</span> +<span class="i0">From face to feet the body's whole soft length<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As with a cloud sun-saturate; then she spake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With maiden tongue words manlike, but her eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lit mildly like a maiden's: <i>Countrymen,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With more goodwill and height of happier heart</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>I give me to you than my mother bare,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And go more gladly this great way to death</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Than young men bound to battle.</i> Then with face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turned to the shadowiest part of all the shrine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And eyes fast set upon the further shade,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1220</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Take me, dear Gods</i>; and as some form had shone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the deep hollow shadow, some God's tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Answered, <i>I bless you that your guardian grace</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Gives me to guard this country, takes my blood,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Your child's by name, to heal it</i>. Then the priest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set to the flower-sweet snow of her soft throat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sheer knife's edge that severed it, and loosed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the fair bondage of so spotless flesh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So strong a spirit; and all that girt them round<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gazing, with souls that hung on that sad stroke,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span><span class="linenum">1230</span> +<span class="i0">Groaned, and kept silence after while a man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might count how far the fresh blood crept, and bathed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How deep the dark robe and the bright shrine's base<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Red-rounded with a running ring that grew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More large and duskier as the wells that fed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were drained of that pure effluence: but the queen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Groaned not nor spake nor wept, but as a dream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Floats out of eyes awakening so past forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ghost-like, a shadow of sorrow, from all sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the inner court and chamber where she sits<br /></span><span class="linenum">1240</span> +<span class="i0">Dumb, till word reach her of this whole day's end.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i4">More hapless born by far<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Beneath some wintrier star,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">One sits in stone among high Lydian snows,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The tomb of her own woes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet happiest was once of the daughters of Gods, and divine by her sire and her lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere her tongue was a shaft for the hearts of her sons, for the heart of her husband a sword.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i6">For she, too great of mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Grown through her good things blind.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +<span class="i2">With godless lips and fire of her own breath<br /></span><span class="linenum">1250</span> +<span class="i4">Spake all her house to death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, no mother unmothered, nor kindled in spirit with pride of thy seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast hallowed thy child for a blameless blood-offering, and ransomed thy race by thy deed.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>MESSENGER.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As flower is graffed on flower, so grief on grief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Engraffed brings forth new blossoms of strange tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fresh buds and green fruits of an alien pain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now flies rumour on a dark wide wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Murmuring of woes more than ye knew, most like<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hers whom ye hailed most wretched; for the twain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Last left of all this house that wore last night<br /></span><span class="linenum">1260</span> +<span class="i0">A threefold crown of maidens, and to-day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should let but one fall dead out of the wreath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If mad with grief we know not and sore love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this their sister, or with shame soul-stung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To outlive her dead or doubt lest their lives too<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods require to seal their country safe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bring the oracular doom to perfect end,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Have slain themselves, and fallen at the altar-foot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie by their own hands done to death; and fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shakes all the city as winds a wintering tree,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1270</span> +<span class="i0">And as dead leaves are men's hearts blown about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shrunken with ill thoughts, and flowerless hopes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Parched up with presage, lest the piteous blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shed of these maidens guiltless fall and fix<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On this land's forehead like a curse that cleaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the unclean soul's inexpiate hunted head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom his own crime tracks hotlier than a hound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To life's veiled end unsleeping; and this hour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now blackens toward the battle that must close<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All gates of hope and fear on all their hearts<br /></span><span class="linenum">1280</span> +<span class="i0">Who tremble toward its issue, knowing not yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If blood may buy them surety, cleanse or soil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The helpless hands men raise and reach no stay.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ill thoughts breed fear, and fear ill words; but these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods turn from us that have kept their law.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let us lift up the strength of our hearts in song,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And our souls to the height of the darkling day.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">If the wind in our eyes blow blood for spray,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Be the spirit that breathes in us life more strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though the prow reel round and the helm point wrong,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1290</span> +<span class="i4">And sharp reefs whiten the shoreward way.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the steersman time sits hidden astern,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">With dark hand plying the rudder of doom,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the surf-smoke under it flies like fume<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the blast shears off and the oar-blades churn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The foam of our lives that to death return,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Blown back as they break to the gulfing gloom.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What cloud upon heaven is arisen, what shadow, what sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">From the world beyond earth, from the night underground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That scatters from wings unbeholden the weight of its darkness around?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 2.<br /></span><span class="linenum">1300</span> +<span class="i2">For the sense of my spirit is broken, and blinded its eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">As the soul of a sick man ready to die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fear of the hour that is on me, with dread if an end be not nigh.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 3.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O Earth, O Gods of the land, have ye heart now to see and to hear<br /></span> +<span class="i4">What slays with terror mine eyesight and seals mine ear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O fountains of streams everlasting, are all ye not shrunk up and withered for fear?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 3.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lo, night is arisen on the noon, and her hounds are in quest by day,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the world is fulfilled of the noise of them crying for their prey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sun's self stricken in heaven, and cast out of his course as a blind man astray.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 4.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From east to west of the south sea-line<br /></span><span class="linenum">1310</span> +<span class="i2">Glitters the lightning of spears that shine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a storm-cloud swoln that comes up from the skirts of the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By the wind for helmsman to shoreward ferried,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So black behind them the live storm serried<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shakes earth with the tramp of its foot, and the terror to be.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 4.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall the sea give death whom the land gave birth?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O Earth, fair mother, O sweet live Earth,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Hide us again in thy womb from the waves of it, help us or hide.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As a sword is the heart of the God thy brother,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But thine as the heart of a new-made mother,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1320</span> +<span class="i0">To deliver thy sons from his ravin, and rage of his tide.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 5.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O strong north wind, the pilot of cloud and rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the gift we gave thee what gift hast thou given us again?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O God dark-winged, deep-throated, a terror to forth-faring ships by night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What bride-song is this that is blown on the blast of thy breath?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A gift but of grief to thy kinsmen, a song but of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the bride's folk weeping, and woe for her father, who finds thee against him in fight.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 5.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Turn back from us, turn thy battle, take heed of our cry;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let thy dread breath sound, and the waters of war be dry;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let thy strong wrath shatter the strength of our foemen, the sword of their strength and the shield;<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span><span class="linenum">1330</span> +<span class="i4">As vapours in heaven, or as waves or the wrecks of ships,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">So break thou the ranks of their spears with the breath of thy lips,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till their corpses have covered and clothed as with raiment the face of the sword-ploughed field.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 6.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O son of the rose-red morning, O God twin-born with the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O wind with the young sun waking, and winged for the same wide way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give up not the house of thy kin to the host thou hast marshalled from northward for prey.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 6.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the cold of thy cradle in Thrace, from the mists of the fountains of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the bride-bed of dawn whence day leaps laughing, on fire for his flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come down with their doom in thine hand on the ships thou hast brought up against us to fight.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 7.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now not in word but in deed is the harvest of spears begun,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1340</span> +<span class="i0">And its clamour outbellows the thunder, its lightning outlightens the sun.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +<span class="i0">From the springs of the morning it thunders and lightens across and afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the wave where the moonset ends and the fall of the last low star.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a trampling of drenched red hoofs and an earthquake of men that meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strong war sets hand to the scythe, and the furrows take fire from his feet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth groans from her great rent heart, and the hollows of rocks are afraid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the mountains are moved, and the valleys as waves in a storm-wind swayed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the roots of the hills to the plain's dim verge and the dark loud shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Air shudders with shrill spears crossing, and hurtling of wheels that roar.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the grinding of teeth in the jaws of a lion that foam as they gnash<br /></span><span class="linenum">1350</span> +<span class="i0">Is the shriek of the axles that loosen, the shock of the poles that crash.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dense manes darken and glitter, the mouths of the mad steeds champ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their heads flash blind through the battle, and death's foot rings in their tramp.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +<span class="i0">For a fourfold host upon earth and in heaven is arrayed for the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clouds ruining in thunder and armies encountering as clouds in the night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine ears are amazed with the terror of trumpets, with darkness mine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the sound of the sea's host charging that deafens the roar of the sky's.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White frontlet is dashed upon frontlet, and horse against horse reels hurled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the gorge of the gulfs of the battle is wide for the spoil of the world.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 7.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the meadows are cumbered with shipwreck of chariots that founder on land,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1360</span> +<span class="i0">And the horsemen are broken with breach as of breakers, and scattered as sand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the roar and recoil of the charges that mingle their cries and confound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like fire are the notes of the trumpets that flash through the darkness of sound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the swing of the sea churned yellow that sways with the wind as it swells<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is the lift and relapse of the wave of the chargers that clash with their bells;<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And the clang of the sharp shrill brass through the burst of the wave as it shocks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rings clean as the clear wind's cry through the roar of the surge on the rocks:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the heads of the steeds in their headgear of war, and their corsleted breasts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gleam broad as the brows of the billows that brighten the storm with their crests,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gleam dread as their bosoms that heave to the shipwrecking wind as they rise,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1370</span> +<span class="i0">Filled full of the terror and thunder of water, that slays as it dies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So dire is the glare of their foreheads, so fearful the fire of their breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the light of their eyeballs enkindled so bright with the lightnings of death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the foam of their mouths as the sea's when the jaws of its gulf are as graves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the ridge of their necks as the wind-shaken mane on the ridges of waves:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And their fetlocks afire as they rear drip thick with a dewfall of blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the lips of the rearing breaker with froth of the manslaying flood.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And the whole plain reels and resounds as the fields of the sea by night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the stroke of the wind falls darkling, and death is the seafarer's light.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Epode.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, fair beauty of heaven, dear face of the day nigh dead,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1380</span> +<span class="i0">What horror hath hidden thy glory, what hand hath muffled thine head?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O sun, with what song shall we call thee, or ward off thy wrath by what name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With what prayer shall we seek to thee, soothe with what incense, assuage with what gift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If thy light be such only as lightens to deathward the seaman adrift<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the fire of his house for a beacon, that foemen have wasted with flame?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arise now, lift up thy light; give ear to us, put forth thine hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reach toward us thy torch of deliverance, a lamp for the night of the land.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thine eye is the light of the living, no lamp for the dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O, lift up the light of thine eye on the dark of our dread.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +<span class="i2">Who hath blinded thee? who hath prevailed on thee? who hath ensnared?<br /></span><span class="linenum">1390</span> +<span class="i2">Who hath broken thy bow, and the shafts for thy battle prepared?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have they found out a fetter to bind thee, a chain for thine arm that was bared?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be the name of thy conqueror set forth, and the might of thy master declared.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O God, fair God of the morning, O glory of day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What ails thee to cast from thy forehead its garland away?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To pluck from thy temples their chaplet enwreathed of the light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bind on the brows of thy godhead a frontlet of night?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast loosened the necks of thine horses, and goaded their flanks with affright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the race of a course that we know not on ways that are hid from our sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As a wind through the darkness the wheels of their chariot are whirled,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1400</span> +<span class="i2">And the light of its passage is night on the face of the world.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +<span class="i2">And there falls from the wings of thy glory no help from on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But a shadow that smites us with fear and desire of thine eye.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For our hearts are as reeds that a wind on the water bows down and goes by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To behold not thy comfort in heaven that hath left us untimely to die.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But what light is it now leaps forth on the land<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Enkindling the waters and ways of the air<br /></span> +<span class="i6">From thy forehead made bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">From the gleam of thy bow-bearing hand?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hast thou set not thy right hand again to the string,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1410</span> +<span class="i2">With the back-bowed horns bent sharp for a spring<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And the barbed shaft drawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till the shrill steel sing and the tense nerve ring<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That pierces the heart of the dark with dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">O huntsman, O king,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When the flame of thy face hath twilight in chase<br /></span> +<span class="i4">As a hound hath a blood-mottled fawn?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He has glanced into golden the grey sea-strands,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the clouds are shot through with the fires of his hands,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +<span class="i2">And the height of the hollow of heaven that he fills<br /></span><span class="linenum">1420</span> +<span class="i2">As the heart of a strong man is quickened and thrills;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">High over the folds of the low-lying lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">On the shadowless hills<br /></span> +<span class="i4">As a guard on his watchtower he stands.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All earth and all ocean, all depth and all height,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At the flash of an eyebeam are filled with his might:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sea roars backward, the storm drops dumb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And silence as dew on the fire of the fight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Falls kind in our ears as his face in our sight<br /></span> +<span class="i4">With presage of peace to come.<br /></span><span class="linenum">1430</span> +<span class="i2">Fresh hope in my heart from the ashes of dread<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Leaps clear as a flame from the pyres of the dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">That joy out of woe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May arise as the spring out of tempest and snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the flower-feasted month in her hands rose-red<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Borne soft as a babe from the bearing-bed.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet it knows not indeed if a God be friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If rescue may be from the rage of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Or the wrath of its lord have end.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the season is full now of death or of birth,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span><span class="linenum">1440</span> +<span class="i2">To bring forth life, or an end of all;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And we know not if anything stand or fall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That is girdled about with the round sea's girth<br /></span> +<span class="i6">As a town with its wall;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But thou that art highest of the Gods most high,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That art lord if we live, that art lord though we die,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have heed of the tongues of our terror that cry<br /></span> +<span class="i4">For a grace to the children of Earth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sons of Athens, heavy-laden with the holy weight of years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be your hearts as young men's lightened of their loathlier load of fears;<br /></span><span class="linenum">1450</span> +<span class="i0">For the wave is sunk whose thunder shoreward shook the shuddering lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unbreached of warring waters Athens like a sea-rock stands.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Well thy word has cheered us, well thy face and glittering eyes, that spake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere thy tongue spake words of comfort: yet no pause, behoves it make<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Till the whole good hap find utterance that the Gods have given at length.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All is this, that yet the city stands unforced by stranger strength.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweeter sound might no mouth utter in man's ear than this thy word.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Feed thy soul then full of sweetness till some bitterer note be heard.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">None, if this ring sure, can mar the music fallen from heaven as rain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If no fire of sun or star untimely sear the tender grain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">1460</span> +<span class="i0">Fresh the dewfall of thy tidings on our hopes reflowering lies.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Till a joyless shower and fruitless blight them, raining from thine eyes.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bitter springs have barren issues; these bedew grief's arid sands.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such thank-offerings ask such altars as expect thy suppliant hands.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tears for triumph, wail for welfare, what strange godhead's shrine requires?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Death's or victory's be it, a funeral torch feeds all its festal fires.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like a star should burn the beacon flaming from our city's head.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like a balefire should the flame go up that says the king is dead.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of heaven, a wild-haired meteor, shoots this new sign, scattering fear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yea, the word has wings of fire that hovered, loth to burn thine ear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="linenum">1470</span> +<span class="i0">From thy lips it leapt forth loosened on a shrill and shadowy wing.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Long they faltered, fain to hide it deep as death that hides the king.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dead with him blind hope lies blasted by the lightning of one sword.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On thy tongue truth wars with error; no man's edge hath touched thy lord.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">False was thine then, jangling menace like a war-steed's brow-bound bell?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">False it rang not joy nor sorrow; but by no man's hand he fell.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Vainly then good news and evil through so faint a trumpet spake.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All too long thy soul yet labours, as who sleeping fain would wake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waking, fain would fall on sleep again; the woe thou knowest not yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou knowest, shall make thy memory thirst and hunger to forget.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><span class="linenum">1480</span> +<span class="i0">Long my heart has hearkened, hanging on thy clamorous ominous cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fain yet fearful of the knowledge whence it looks to live or die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now to take the perfect presage of thy dark and sidelong flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comes a surer soothsayer sorrowing, sable-stoled as birds of night.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man, what thy mother bare thee born to say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speak; for no word yet wavering on thy lip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can wound me worse than thought forestalls or fear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENIAN HERALD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no will to weave too fine or far,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O queen, the weft of sweet with bitter speech,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bright words with darkling; but the brief truth shown<br /></span><span class="linenum">1490</span> +<span class="i0">Shall plead my pardon for a lingering tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loth yet to strike hope through the heart and slay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun's light still was lordly housed in heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the twain fronts of war encountering smote<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +<span class="i0">First fire out of the battle; but not long<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had the fresh wave of windy fight begun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaving, and all the surge of swords to sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When timeless night laid hold of heaven, and took<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With its great gorge the noon as in a gulf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strangled; and thicker than the shrill-winged shafts<br /></span><span class="linenum">1500</span> +<span class="i0">Flew the fleet lightnings, held in chase through heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By headlong heat of thunders on their trail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loosed as on quest of quarry; that our host<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smit with sick presage of some wrathful God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quailed, but the foe as from one iron throat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With one great sheer sole thousand-throated cry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shook earth, heart-staggered from their shout, and clove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The eyeless hollow of heaven; and breached therewith<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As with an onset of strength-shattering sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rent vault of the roaring noon of night<br /></span><span class="linenum">1510</span> +<span class="i0">From her throned seat of usurpation rang<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reverberate answer; such response there pealed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As though the tide's charge of a storming sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had burst the sky's wall, and made broad a breach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the ambient girth and bastion flanked with stars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Guarding the fortress of the Gods, and all<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Crashed now together on ruin; and through that cry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And higher above it ceasing one man's note<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tore its way like a trumpet: <i>Charge, make end,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Charge, halt not, strike, rend up their strength by the roots,</i><br /></span><span class="linenum">1520</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Strike, break them, make your birthright's promise sure,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Show your hearts hardier than the fenced land breeds</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And souls breathed in you from no spirit of earth,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Sons of the sea's waves</i>; and all ears that heard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rang with that fiery cry, that the fine air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereat was fired, and kindling filled the plain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of that fierce and trumpet-quenching breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That spake the clarions silent; no glad song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For folk to hear that wist how dire a God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Begat this peril to them, what strong race<br /></span><span class="linenum">1530</span> +<span class="i0">Fathered the sea-born tongue that sang them death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Threatening; so raged through the red foam of fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poseidon's son Eumolpus; and the war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quailed round him coming, and our side bore back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a stream thwarted by the wind and sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That meet it midway mouth to mouth, and beat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flood back of its issue; but the king<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Shouted against them, crying, <i>O Father-God,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Source of the God my father, from thine hand</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Send me what end seems good now in thy sight,</i><br /></span><span class="linenum">1540</span> +<span class="i0"><i>But death from mine to this man</i>; and the word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quick on his lips yet like a blast of fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blew them together; and round its lords that met<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Paused all the reeling battle; two main waves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meeting, one hurled sheer from the sea-wall back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shocks it sideways, one right in from sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Charging, that full in face takes at one blow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That whole recoil and ruin, with less fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Startle men's eyes late shipwrecked; for a breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crest fronting crest hung, wave to wave rose poised,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1550</span> +<span class="i0">Then clashed, breaker to breaker; cloud with cloud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In heaven, chariot with chariot closed on earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One fourfold flash and thunder; yet a breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the king's spear through his red heart's root<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Driven, like a rock split from its hill-side, fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hurled under his own horsehoofs dead on earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea-beast that made war on earth from sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dumb, with no shrill note left of storming song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eumolpus; and his whole host with one stroke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spear-stricken through its dense deep iron heart<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span><span class="linenum">1560</span> +<span class="i0">Fell hurtling from us, and in fierce recoil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drew seaward as with one wide wail of waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resorbed with reluctation; such a groan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rose from the fluctuant refluence of its ranks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sucked sullen back and strengthless; but scarce yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The steeds had sprung and wheels had bruised their lord<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fallen, when from highest height of the sundering heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Father for his brother's son's sake slain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sent a sheer shaft of lightning writhen and smote<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Right on his son's son's forehead, that unhelmed<br /></span><span class="linenum">1570</span> +<span class="i0">Shone like the star that shines down storm, and gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Light to men's eyes that saw thy lord their king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stand and take breath from battle; then too soon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw sink down as a sunset in sea-mist<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The high bright head that here in van of the earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rose like a headland, and through storm and night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Took all the sea's wrath on it; and now dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bring thee back by war-forsaken ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The strength called once thy husband, the great guard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That was of all men, stay of all men's lives,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1580</span> +<span class="i0">They bear him slain of no man but a God,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Godlike; and toward him dead the city's gates<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fling their arms open mother-like, through him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saved; and the whole clear land is purged of war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What wilt thou say now of this weal and woe?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I praise the Gods for Athens. O sweet Earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mother, what joy thy soul has of thy son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy life of my dead lord, mine own soul knows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That knows thee godlike; and what grief should mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What sorrow should my heart have, who behold<br /></span><span class="linenum">1590</span> +<span class="i0">Thee made so heavenlike happy? This alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I only of all these blessed, all thy kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crave this for blessing to me, that in theirs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have but a part thus bitter; give me too<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death, and the sight of eyes that meet not mine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thee too from no godless heart or tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reproachful, thee too by thy living name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father divine, merciful God, I call,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spring of my life-springs, fountain of my stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pure and poured forth to one great end with thine,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1600</span> +<span class="i0">Sweet head sublime of triumph and these tears,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Cephisus, if thou seest as gladly shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy blood in mine as thine own waves are given<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To do this great land good, to give for love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The same lips drink and comfort the same hearts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do thou then, O my father, white-souled God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thy most pure earth-hallowing heart eterne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take what thou gavest to be given for these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take thy child to thee; for her time is full,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all she hath borne she hath given, seen all she had<br /></span><span class="linenum">1610</span> +<span class="i0">Flow from her, from her eyes and breasts and hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flow forth to feed this people; but be thou,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dear God and gracious to all souls alive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good to thine own seed also; let me sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father; my sleepless darkling day is done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My day of life like night, but slumberless:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all my fresh fair springs, and his that ran<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In one stream's bed with mine, are all run out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the deep of death. The Gods have saved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Athens; my blood has bought her at their hand,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1620</span> +<span class="i0">And ye sit safe; be glorious and be glad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As now for all time always, countrymen,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And love my dead for ever; but me, me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What shall man give for these so good as death?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 1.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the cup of my heart I pour through my lips along<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mingled wine of a joyful and sorrowful song;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wine sweeter than honey and bitterer than blood that is poured<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the chalice of gold, from the point of the two-edged sword.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the city redeemed should joy flow forth as a flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a dirge make moan for the city polluted with blood.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 1.<br /></span><span class="linenum">1630</span> +<span class="i0">Great praise should the Gods have surely, my country, of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were thy brow but as white as of old for thy sons to see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were thy hands as bloodless, as blameless thy cheek divine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But a stain on it stands of the life-blood offered for thine.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +<span class="i0">What thanks shall we give that are mixed not and marred with dread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the price that has ransomed thine own with thine own child's head?<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Str.</i> 2.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For a taint there cleaves to the people redeemed with blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And a plague to the blood-red hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The rain shall not cleanse it, the dew nor the sacred flood<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That blesses the glad live land.<br /></span> +<span class="sidenote">[<i>Ant.</i> 2.<br /></span><span class="linenum">1640</span> +<span class="i2">In the darkness of earth beneath, in the world without sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The shadows of past things reign;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And a cry goes up from the ghost of an ill deed done,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And a curse for a virgin slain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>ATHENA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hear, men that mourn, and woman without mate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hearken; ye sick of soul with fear, and thou<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dumb-stricken for thy children; hear ye too,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth, and the glory of heaven, and winds of the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the most holy heart of the deep sea,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Late wroth, now full of quiet; hear thou, sun,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1650</span> +<span class="i0">Rolled round with the upper fire of rolling heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the stars returning; hills and streams,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Springs and fresh fountains, day that seest these deeds.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Night that shalt hide not; and thou child of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Child of a maiden, by a maid redeemed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blood-guiltless, though bought back with innocent blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">City mine own; I Pallas bring thee word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I virgin daughter of the most high God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give all you charge and lay command on all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The word I bring be wasted not; for this<br /></span><span class="linenum">1660</span> +<span class="i0">The Gods have stablished and his soul hath sworn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That time nor earth nor changing sons of man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor waves of generations, nor the winds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of ages risen and fallen that steer their tides<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through light and dark of birth and lovelier death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From storm toward haven inviolable, shall see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So great a light alive beneath the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the awless eye of Athens; all fame else<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall be to her fame as a shadow in sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To this wide noon at waking; men most praised<br /></span><span class="linenum">1670</span> +<span class="i0">In lands most happy for their children found<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Shall hold as highest of honours given of God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be but likened to the least of thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy least of all, my city; thine shall be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crown of all songs sung, of all deeds done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine the full flower for all time; in thine hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall time be like a sceptre, and thine head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wear worship for a garland; nor one leaf<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall change or winter cast out of thy crown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till all flowers wither in the world; thine eyes<br /></span><span class="linenum">1680</span> +<span class="i0">Shall first in man's flash lightning liberty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy tongue shall first say freedom; thy first hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall loose the thunder terror as a hound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hunt from sunset to the springs of the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kings that rose up out of the populous east<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make their quarry of thee, and shall strew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With multitudinous limbs of myriad herds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The foodless pastures of the sea, and make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wrecks immeasurable and unsummed defeat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One ruin of all their many-folded flocks<br /></span><span class="linenum">1690</span> +<span class="i0">Ill shepherded from Asia; by thy side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall fight thy son the north wind, and the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That was thine enemy shall be sworn thy friend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hand be struck in hand of his and thine<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +<span class="i0">To hold faith fast for aye; with thee, though each<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make war on other, wind and sea shall keep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peace, and take truce as brethren for thy sake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leagued with one spirit and single-hearted strength<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To break thy foes in pieces, who shall meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wind's whole soul and might of the main sea<br /></span><span class="linenum">1700</span> +<span class="i0">Full in their face of battle, and become<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A laughter to thee; like a shower of leaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall their long galleys rank by staggering rank<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be dashed adrift on ruin, and in thy sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea deride them, and that lord of the air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who took by violent hand thy child to wife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With his loud lips bemock them, by his breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swept out of sight of being; so great a grace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall this day give thee, that makes one in heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With mine the deep sea's godhead, and his son<br /></span><span class="linenum">1710</span> +<span class="i0">With him that was thine helmsman, king with king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead man with dead; such only names as these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shalt thou call royal, take none else or less<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hold of men in honour; but with me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall these be worshipped as one God, and mix<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With mine the might of their mysterious names<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In one same shrine served singly, thence to keep<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Perpetual guard on Athens; time and change,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Masters and lords of all men, shall be made<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thee that knowest no master and no lord<br /></span><span class="linenum">1720</span> +<span class="i0">Servants; the days that lighten heaven and nights<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That darken shall be ministers of thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To attend upon thy glory, the great years<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As light-engraven letters of thy name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Writ by the sun's hand on the front of the earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For world-beholden witness; such a gift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one fair chaplet of three lives enwreathed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hang for ever from thy storied shrine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this thy steersman fallen with tiller in hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stand for ever at thy ship's helm seen,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1730</span> +<span class="i0">Shall he that bade their threefold flower be shorn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laid him low that planted, give thee back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In sign of sweet land reconciled with sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heavenlike earth with heaven; such promise-pledge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I daughter without mother born of God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the most woful mother born of man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plight for continual comfort. Hail, and live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond all human hap of mortal doom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Happy; for so my sire hath sworn and I.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<h4>PRAXITHEA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O queen Athena, from a heart made whole<br /></span><span class="linenum">1740</span> +<span class="i0">Take as thou givest us blessing; never tear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall stain for shame nor groan untune the song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That as a bird shall spread and fold its wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here in thy praise for ever, and fulfil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whole world's crowning city crowned with thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the sun's eye fulfils and crowns with sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The circling crown of heaven. There is no grief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great as the joy to be made one in will<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With him that is the heart and rule of life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thee, God born of God; thy name is ours,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1750</span> +<span class="i0">And thy large grace more great than our desire.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>CHORUS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From the depth of the springs of my spirit a fountain is poured of thanksgiving,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">My country, my mother, for thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thy dead for their death shall have life in thy sight and a name everliving<br /></span> +<span class="i4">At heart of thy people to be.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +<span class="i0">In the darkness of change on the waters of time they shall turn from afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the beam of this dawn for a beacon, the light of these pyres for a star.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shall see thee who love and take comfort, who hate thee shall see and take warning,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Our mother that makest us free;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sons of thine earth shall have help of the waves that made war on their morning,<br /></span><span class="linenum">1760</span> +<span class="i4">And friendship and fame of the sea.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> +<h2>NOTES.</h2> + + +<p><a href="#Page_28">v. 497-503</a>. Cf. Eurip. Fr. <i>Erechtheus</i>, 46-49.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_29">v. 522-530</a>. Id. 32-40.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_44">v. 778</a>. Æsch. <i>Supp.</i> 524-6.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_57">v. 983</a>. Soph. Fr. (<i>Oreithyia</i>) 655.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">ὑπέρ τε πόντον πάντ' ἐπ' ἔσχατα χθονὸς<br /></span> +<span class="i0">νυκτός τε πηγὰς οὐρανοῦ τ' ἀναπτυχὰς,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">φοίβου παλαιὸν κῆπον.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a href="#Page_68">v. 1163</a>. Æsch. Fr. (<i>Danaides</i>) 38.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">ὄμβρος δ' ἀπ' εὐνάεντος οὐρανοῦ πεσὼν<br /></span> +<span class="i0">ἔκυσε γαῖαν.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a href="#Page_68">v. 1168</a>. Id.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">δενδρῶτις ὥρα δ' ἐκ νοτίζοντος γάμου<br /></span> +<span class="i0">τέλειός ἐστι<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a href="#Page_104">v. 1749</a>. '<i>God born of God.</i>' Soph. <i>Ant.</i> 834. θεός τοι καὶ θεογεννής.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h5> +LONDON:<br /> +PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,<br /> +STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.<br /> +</h5> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Erechtheus, by Algernon Charles Swinburne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ERECHTHEUS *** + +***** This file should be named 18550-h.htm or 18550-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/5/5/18550/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Taavi Kalju and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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