Silent they gaze from Ilion's battlements - Yon sail to-day has brought her latest foe; Silent they gaze upon the plain below, And hear glad voices from the Grecian tents: Not now Achilles, shouting from the trench, Dismays them - but that friend of Hercules, Armed with the Hydra's blood to fight for Greece, Though once deported for his rueful stench; The cruel shafts will soon be on the wing, So brief is that beleaguered city's span; The leech has gone to that ill-savoured man: The foot of Philoctetes yearns to spring Like young Protesilaus! Troy hath learned Her fate, - the ten-years' exile hath returned! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CANONIZATION by JOHN DONNE ODES I, 38. AD MINISTRAM by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS TO THE EARL OF WARWICK ON THE DEATH OF MR. ADDISON by THOMAS TICKELL ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE ENGINE by ALEXANDER ANDERSON CHRISTMAS EVE by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE THE BOUT by EVARISTE BOULAY-PATY |