Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE KNIGHTS: DEMOS REJUVENATED, by ARISTOPHANES



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE KNIGHTS: DEMOS REJUVENATED, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Now peace, and be still! A seal on your lips!
Last Line: Thy life is worthy of athens and true to the trophy on marathon plain.


OFFAL-MONGER. CHORUS

O.M.

Now peace, and be still! A seal on your lips! Let the witness-box echo no
voices!
Shut be the gates of the Jurors' Courts, wherein this people rejoices.
Let the Theatre sing for the news I bring, and welcome a wondrous tale!

CHO.

O star in the night to Athens the Blest, O help of the Islands, hail!
Say what glad thing is this that you bring, and our altars shall smoke in the
street.

O.M.

I have boiled your Demos in magical herbs, and turned him from rotten to sweet!

CHO.

O worker of wonders! Where standeth he now, or where hath he laid him down?

O.M.

He dwells in the Athens of ancient days, in Her of the violent crown.

CHO.

How can we look on him? How is he changed? What like in carriage and dress?

O.M.

As he was when he sat at Miltiades' side and with great Aristides at mess.
But soon ye shall see him. There, hearken, above us the Gates of the Rock
unfold.
Uplift your voices and open your eyes on Athens, the Athens of old.
The wonderful City, the City of song, true home of our Demos! Behold!

CHO.

O shining Athens, O violet-crowned, O blest all cities above,
Unveil to our eyes the Lord of the Greeks, the Lord of the Land we love!

O.M.

It is he, in the clean grave raiment of old, the grasshopper bright on his
crown,
No longer he smells of balloting shells, but of Peace and myrrh running down.

CHO.

All hail, O King over Hellas the Great, we rejoice in thy joy! For again
Thy life is worthy of Athens and true to the Trophy on Marathon plain.





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