Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELECTRA: NEWS OF ORESTES' DEATH, by SOPHOCLES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ELECTRA: NEWS OF ORESTES' DEATH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Do not you mark how passionate, how wild
Last Line: To live in pain, the light I hate to spinne.
Subject(s): Mourning; Bereavement


Do not you mark how passionate, how wild
Distressed Lady she bewayls her child?
That he is dead, and that he thus should die?
No: she unnat'rall laughs. Unhappy I!
I, who deare Brother, perish in thy fall,
While thou hast bury'd at thy Funerall,
My remnant of low hopes to see the day,
When thy just hand full vengeance should display,
A Fathers death, and Sisters wrongs to pay.
Now where shall I my dolefull footsteps turn,
Who am all desolate, and twice forlorn?
Brotherlesse Orphan. Once more to their check
Whom I most hate, I must submit my neck,
My Fathers Headsmen serve. With me is't well?
But 'tis resolv'd, I will no longer dwell
In these curs'd walls, but here before this gate
Laying me down, will fade disconsolate,
And let them, if they take this ill within
Kill me, my slaughter were a courteous sinne,
To live in pain, the light I hate to spinne.




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