 | Tiresias |  |
“O Mother, grateful sound! Fair are thy words;
And touch me as pale shivering in the leaves
Whispers of rainy wind on scorching days,
Before the summer showers on meads athirst
Awaken hushed and grateful murmurings;
So thirsting I thy pleasant accents take,
And like the warblers roundabout I hear
I would in music like to their's respond!
And touch me as pale shivering in the leaves
Whispers of rainy wind on scorching days,
Before the summer showers on meads athirst
Awaken hushed and grateful murmurings;
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And like the warblers roundabout I hear
I would in music like to their's respond!
“That vision of annihilated Greeks,
Tho' justly due to vengeance, wrings my heart.
Save for my strange God-stricken destiny,
Could I not hope by mixing much with men,
Thro' clear, persuasive, seasonable words,
To reach their temper at the wavering pause;
And, gently aiding undetermined bent,
To turn their footsteps into settled ways
Approved by wisdom, and of Gods beloved!
But now, alas, unable, I discern,
Dimly as thro' a veil, our people range
Disorderly wide trackless waste, with eyes
Hard set on fancies they have cast before,
To find delusive nothing in their grasp;
Or phantoms fair that smile and lure advance,
Till seized at length they change to demons dire
And rend them out of life!”
Tho' justly due to vengeance, wrings my heart.
Save for my strange God-stricken destiny,
Could I not hope by mixing much with men,
Thro' clear, persuasive, seasonable words,
To reach their temper at the wavering pause;
And, gently aiding undetermined bent,
To turn their footsteps into settled ways
Approved by wisdom, and of Gods beloved!
But now, alas, unable, I discern,
Dimly as thro' a veil, our people range
Disorderly wide trackless waste, with eyes
Hard set on fancies they have cast before,
To find delusive nothing in their grasp;
Or phantoms fair that smile and lure advance,
Till seized at length they change to demons dire
And rend them out of life!”
| Tiresias | |