Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COLONOS, by SOPHOCLES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COLONOS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Where are we now, my dear antigone?
Last Line: Derive, thence called colonians all.
Subject(s): Colonos (mountain), Greece


OEDIPUS.

WHERE are we now, my dear Antigone?
Know'st thou the place? Will any here afford
Their scanty alms to a poor wanderer,
The banished OEdipus? I ask not much,
Yet less receive; but I am satisfied:
Long time hath made my woes familiar to me,
And I have learned to bear calamity.
But tell me, daughter, if thou seest a place,
Or sacred or profane, where I may rest,
There set me down, from some inhabitant
A chance but we may learn where now we are,
And act, so strangers ought, as he directs us.

ANTIGONE.

O OEdipus! my poor, unhappy father!
Far as my eyes can reach, I see a city
With lofty turrets crowned, and, if I err not,
This place is sacred, by the laurel shade
Olive and vine thick planted, and the songs
Of nightingales sweet-warbling through the grove;
Here set thee down, and rest thy wearied limbs
On this rude stone; 't is a long way for age
Like thine to travel.

ATHENIAN.

I'll tell thee what I know.
This place is sacred all: great Neptune here
Presides, and he who bears the living fire,
Titan Prometheus; where thou tread'st is called
The brazen way, the bulwark of our state:
From this equestrian hill, their safest guard,
The neighboring villagers their general name
Derive, thence called Colonians all.





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