WHERE Delphi's consecrated pass Boeotia's misty region faces, Rises a tomb-like stony mass Amid the bosky mountain-bases; It seems no work of human care, But many rocks split off from one: Laius, the Theban king, lies there, -- His murderer CEdipus, his son. No pilgrim to the Pythian shrine But marked the spot with decent awe, In presence of a power divine, O'erruling human will and law: And to some thoughtful hearts that scene, -- Those paths, that mound, those browsing herds, Were more than e'er that tale had been, Arrayed in Sophoclean words. So is it yet, -- no time or space That ancient anguish can assuage, For sorrow is of every race, And suffering due from every age; That awful legend falls to us, With all the weight that Greece could feel, And every man is CEdipus, Whose wounds no mortal skill can heal. O, call it Providence or fate, The Sphinx propounds the riddle still, That man must bear and expiate Loads of involuntary ill: So shall endurance ever hold The foremost rank mid human needs, Not without faith that God can mould To good the dross of evil deeds. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MATER IN EXTREMIS by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER ELEGY: 11. THE BRACELET; UPON THE LOSS OF HIS MISTRESS'S CHAIN by JOHN DONNE LITTLE BROWN BABY by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR A SONG TO MITHRAS by RUDYARD KIPLING ELEGY FOR A DEAD KING by AL-KUTANDI |