So in Pieria, from the wedded bliss Of Time and Memory, the Muses came To be the means of rich oblivion, And rest from cares. And when the Thunderer Took heaven, then the Titans warred on him For pity of mankind. But the great law, Which is the law of music, not of bread, Set Atlas for a pillar, manacled His brother to the rocks of the Scythia, And under Aetna fixed the furious Typhon. So should thought rule, not force. And Amphion, Pursuing justice, entered Thebes and slew His mother's spouse; but when he would make sure And fortify the city, then he took The lyre that Hermes gave, and played, and watched The stones move and assemble, till a wall Engirded Thebes and kept the citadel Beyond the reach of arrows and of fire. What other power but harmony can build A city, and what gift so magical As that by which a city lifts its walls? So men, in years to come, shall feel the power Of this man moving through the high-ranged thought Which plans for beauty, builds for larger life. The stones shall rise in towers to answer him. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BARD; A PINDARIC ODE by THOMAS GRAY ON SOMETHING THAT WALKS SOMEWHERE by BEN JONSON ULTIMA THULE: THE CHAMBER OVER THE GATE by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW WATER WOMAN by JOSEPH AUSLANDER PSALM 9. CONFITEBOR TIBI by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE RUSSIAN STUDENT'S TALE by MATHILDE BLIND INTERVAL by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |