 | Tiresias |  |
From age to age
Run stories of a mighty day when Greeks
Were God-directed, and when men obeyed.
But when I strive to pierce the black abyss
Of unborn time I see but shameful shades!
O, sight of horror; rent that blank abyss!
Where, thunder-armed, the great Olympian Gods
All breathe indignant vengeance as one face,
And storm their chariots over thundering plains;
Forth stream their hissing bolts, speed swift their shafts;
In lines of lightning sing their angry spears!
And flanking hard move strange stupendous Shapes
Who, plucking splintered rocks, and forest trees,
Dash cities out of being at a blow;
And monstrous creatures leap whose caverned jaws
Crash and make havoc on distracted flocks.
Last famine stalks close linked with pestilence;
And blight that chars the traversed space like flame.
Run stories of a mighty day when Greeks
Were God-directed, and when men obeyed.
But when I strive to pierce the black abyss
Of unborn time I see but shameful shades!
O, sight of horror; rent that blank abyss!
Where, thunder-armed, the great Olympian Gods
All breathe indignant vengeance as one face,
And storm their chariots over thundering plains;
25
In lines of lightning sing their angry spears!
And flanking hard move strange stupendous Shapes
Who, plucking splintered rocks, and forest trees,
Dash cities out of being at a blow;
And monstrous creatures leap whose caverned jaws
Crash and make havoc on distracted flocks.
Last famine stalks close linked with pestilence;
And blight that chars the traversed space like flame.
| Tiresias | |