Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


EURIPIDES by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY

First Line: TO HIM THE FATE WE BEAR WAS LIKE A SEA
Last Line: THAT BUILDED ON THE SEA, LOVED HIS NAME MOST.
Subject(s): DEATH; EURIPIDES (484-406 B.C.); HEARTS; SEA; SHIPS & SHIPPING; SIN; DEAD, THE; OCEAN;

To him the fate we bear was like a sea
That sweeps above the many ships that sailed,
And waits as home for all that sail again.
Bitter intolerably, and deep as death;
But shining, too, shining and full of spray,
In color stained lovelier than the sky,
Singing a requiem for them that die
Adventuring on its bounds, or, dauntless, sing
When roaring and inevitable wash
Heaves down the prows. . . . His heart was full of stars,
His prayers only to gods that deathlessly
Abide and dream no sin. And Syracuse
That builded on the sea, loved his name most.



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