The poetical works of Henry Alford | ||
XXXIV. SUGGESTED BY THE OPENING OF THE ŒDIPUS COLONEUS OF SOPHOCLES.
Colonos, can it be that thou hast stillThy laurel and thine olive and thy vine?
Do thy close-feathered nightingales yet trill
Their warbles of thick-sobbing song divine?
Does the gold sheen of the crocus o'er thee shine
And dew-fed clusters of the daffodil,
And round thy flowery knots, Cephisus twine,
Aye oozing up with many a bubbling rill?
Oh, might I stand beside thy leafy knoll,
In sight of the far-off city towers, and see
The faithful-hearted pure Antigone
Toward the dread precinct leading sad and slow
That awful temple of a kingly soul,
Lifted to heaven by unexampled woe.
The poetical works of Henry Alford | ||