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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLACK REGIMENT by GEORGE HENRY BOKER ON A DEAD CHILD by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES YUSSOUF by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL AGAINST IDLENESS AND MISCHIEF by ISAAC WATTS THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING by WALT WHITMAN PET'S PUNISHMENT by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY |