To seal mine eyelids down: and when I fain
Would try a song, or whistle me a tune,13
With this, my counterfeit music, carving out
A counter-charm to sleep, alas! alas !
'Tis all one, do whate'er I will, nought do I,
But wail and groan for the great miseries
That light upon this house—a house no more
Royally ministered as heretofore,
[He suddenly catches sight of the signal-fire kindled on the heights of Arachne.]
-Now come joyaunce, come my toil's relief, Fire through the darkness flasheth on my grief, The fire of glad good tidings. Hail! all hail! Night-torch whose brightness maketh day grow pale,' Herald of light—and, from this night's good chance, To Argos marshal of full many a dance.
Hurrah! hurrah!
Awake! awake! hurrah!
Now in the ear of Agamemnon's wife
I ring my message clearly, that she rise
With all speed from her bed, and through the house
Raise her loud cry of welcoming, to greet
This torch-flame; if, that is, the town of Troy
Be taken as this bright-tongued beacon saith.
And I myself will dance a measure first
By way of prelude, for I'll wager ye15
My master's matters turn out bravely, seeing
This beacon beaconeth three sizes to me.16
O that I once in this right hand might bear
The gracious right hand of my Lord the King,
Coming again unto his own in peace:
And-but hist! hist! the big bull o'er my tongue
Hath gone and trod my talk out.17 O these walls,
Had they but gift of speech, could tell their tale
With marvellous distinctness :18 as for me
To witting men I speak full wittingly;
Where men know nothing-why then-nought know I. [WARDER descends from his tower.
Enter CHORUS of ANCIENTS in solemn procession, headed by their leader chaunting the parodus. They occupy the wide space in front.
Nine
years have come and
gone,
and here
To us hath come the tenth long year
Since, Priam's self impleading in the list
Of right and truth, his great antagonist
Menelaus, and that other
King, the King of Men, his brother,
Dowered from Jove with double throne,
And with twofold sceptre graced,
Either chieftain-Atreus' son,
True yoke-fellows, stoutly braced,
Since, I say, they weighed away
From this shore across the sea
With their well-trimmed Argian fleet
Of a thousand barks complete,
And their banded soldiery.
They weighed, and from their soul on high
Screamed as they went their mighty battle-cry:
Like to vultures, that afar
From man's path wild-wailing are 19
For their young-and high o'er head
Whirl and whirl above their bed,
Rowing round in eddying rings
With the oarage of their wings.
For lost have they the eyrie-watching care21
Of their young no longer there:
But one there is, most high, that hearkeneth still,
Some good Apollo, Pan, or Zeus perchance;
He hears the wailing scream, the shrieks that thrill,
And Erinnys bids advance
Surely on the felons' track
To avenge his liegemen's wrong, With pains that never slack,
Albeit they tarry long.
Thus, mightier than the mightiest ones,
Great Zeus, the hallowed hearth befriending,
Old Atreus' royal sons
'Gainst Alexander sending,
For the lady sadly wooed
By a suitor multitude,
Will on Greek and Trojan lay
Wrestlings manifold and rude,
Limbs o'erwearied in the fray,
Knees in dust bent down and buried,
Spear-staff splintered in the serried
Onset of the war-array. 22
And--but where things be they be,
Issuing out in destiny:
Nor low wail, nor lamentation,
Nor drink-offering, nor libation,
Nor salt tear the sin atones :
Not these their fierce unbending spirits soothe,
Spirits that neither pity know nor ruth-
The spirits of those Fireless Holy-Ones.23
But we, out worn and dead,
With flesh dishonoured,
Left of that glorious muster-roll here wait:
Wait and on hand-staves seek
Our strength to stay like infants weak,——-24
Babes superannuate.
Yea, the young pith and marrow 25
In chests that mount and swell
Are age-like, and the Hold 26 too narrow
For Mars therein to dwell.
While Over-age, its foliage
In showers fast shedding round,27
On three legs stalks, and scores its walks
With three feet on the ground;28
And nothing better than a child
Still dotes and totters in and out;
A daylight dream, a vision wild,29
Whereat the sun doth flout.
Daughter of Tyndarus, Queen Clytemnestra,
What marvel, what new thing hath wrought upon thee,
What tale of tidings now
Hath by its sweet persuasion won thee
Round every altar-shrine
To send thy sacrificial gifts divine,
Whereby, of all the Powers
That guard our Towns and Towers,
Of Upper Gods and Nether
That dwell the earth below.
Of Gods of Heavenliest race,
And Gods that rule the Mart and Market-place,
With gifts of price the fire-fed altars glow :
Here, there, and everywhere
Scaling heaven's topmost stair
The torch-flame lifts its lengthening trail in air," Drugged with pure oils, of richest perfume wrought, Incentives soft and unadulterate,
A kingly moulded cate
From a king's chamber brought.31
Since then these things be so, I pray thee tell
What tell thou canst-yea what thou mayst--declare,
And be thyself the Healer of this care,
That one while weighs my soul down with its weight,
Its weight of evil; and anon upsprings
Fresh from the hearth-fire's new-born ray
A Hope instead, whose gentle blandishings
Ward off all carking thought insatiate;
All grief, the heart that wrings,
And gnaws the soul away.32
Lord of my lips, I fain would chaunt on high
The joyous long-portended mastery
Vouchsafed those mighty men; for out of heaven
Even yet to me there bloweth
The Suasion of sweet song,
By whose soft breath is given
A strength with mine that groweth,
Making my spirit strong:
Yea, strong to sing how heretofore
The hurrying bird sent out
Against the fated Teucrian shore,
Our bold Achaians' twin-throned power,
Marshal, one-souled, of Hellas flower,
Spear-armed and for the avenging hour
Strung with staunch hand and stout.
Yea, then to each bold Sea King
Did a King of Birds appear,
One jet-black and the other
All snow-white, in the rear;
They shone the King's pavilions nigh
Upon a man's sword-hand,33
On seats that glittered gloriously,
|