FullReads

OED.
Ye Heavens, reward such excellence!

THE.
How, then?
Is it thy choice now to go home with me?

OED.
Yea, were it lawful. But in this same spot–

THE.
What wouldst thou do? I’ll not withstand thy will.

OED.
I must have victory o’er my banishers.

THE.
Thy dwelling with us, then, is our great gain?

OED.
Yes, if thou fail me not, but keep thy word.

THE.
Nay, fear not me! I will aye be true to thee.

OED.
I will not bind thee, like a knave, with oaths.

THE.
Oaths were no stronger than my simple word.

OED.
What will ye do, then?

THE.
What is that thou fearest?

OED.
They will come hither.

THE.
Thy guards will see to that.

OED.
Beware, lest, if you leave me–

THE.
Tell not me,
I know my part.

OED.
Terror will have me speak.

THE.
Terror and I are strangers.

OED.
But their threats!
Thou canst not know–

THE.
I know that none shall force
Thee from this ground against thy will. Full oft
Have threatening words in wrath been voluble,
Yet, when the mind regained her place again,
The threatened evil vanished. So to-day
Bold words of boastful meaning have proclaimed
Thy forcible abduction by thy kin.
Yet shall they find (I know it) the voyage from Thebes,
On such a quest, long and scarce navigable.
Whate’er my thought, if Phoebus sent thee forth,
I would bid thee have no fear. And howsoe’er,
My name will shield thee from all injury.

CHORUS.
Friend! in our land of conquering steeds thou art come
To this Heaven-fostered haunt, Earth’s fairest home,
Gleaming Colonos, where the nightingale
In cool green covert warbleth ever clear,
True to the clustering ivy and the dear
Divine, impenetrable shade,
From wildered boughs and myriad fruitage made,
Sunless at noon, stormless in every gale.
Wood-roving Bacchus there, with mazy round,
And his nymph nurses range the unoffended ground.

And nourished day by day with heavenly dew
Bright flowers their never-failing bloom renew,
From eldest time Deo and Cora’s crown
Full-flowered narcissus, and the golden beam
Of crocus, while Cephisus’ gentle stream
In runnels fed by sleepless springs
Over the land’s broad bosom daily brings
His pregnant waters, never dwindling down.
The quiring Muses love to seek the spot
And Aphrodite’s golden car forsakes it not.

Here too a plant, nobler than e’er was known
On Asian soil, grander than yet hath grown
In Pelops’ mighty Dorian isle, unsown,
Free, self-create, the conquering foeman’s fear,
The kind oil-olive, silvery-green,
Chief nourisher of childish life, is seen
To burgeon best in this our mother-land.
No warrior, young, nor aged in command,
Shall ravage this, or scathe it with the spear;
For guardian Zeus’ unslumbering eye
Beholds it everlastingly,
And Athens’ grey-eyed Queen, dwelling for ever near.

Yet one more praise mightier than all I tell
O’er this my home, that Ocean loves her well,
And coursers love her, children of the wave
To grace these roadways Prince Poseidon first
Framed for the horse, that else had burst
From man’s control, the spirit taming bit
And the trim bark, rowed by strong arms, doth flit
O’er briny seas with glancing motion brave
Lord of the deep! by that thy glorious gift
Thou hast established our fair town
For ever in supreme renown–
The Sea nymphs’ plashing throng glide not more smoothly swift.