DEAR son of AEgeus, to the gods alone Belongs immunity from death and age: All else doth all-controlling time confound. Earth's strength decays, the body's strength decays, Faith dies, and faithlessness bursts into flower, And never does the same wind blow for long Steadfast from friend to friend, from town to town. For this man now, and that man afterwards, Likes what he liked not, loathes what once he loved. Though now with Thebes and thee all promise fair, Yet Time in his unreckonable track Brings days and nights unreckoned to the birth, In which our present pledges of good will Shall fade in fighting from an idle word; When my cold body, sleeping secretly, Shall drink the warm blood of my enemies, If Zeus is Zeus and his son, Phoebus, true. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG OF THE RABBITS OUTSIDE THE TAVERN by ELIZABETH JANE COATSWORTH THE HUMBLE-BEE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON LESSER EPISTLES: TO A LADY ON HER PASSION FOR OLD CHINA by JOHN GAY LEINSTER by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY HIS GRANGE, OR PRIVATE WEALTH by ROBERT HERRICK THE BELLE OF THE BALL by WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED LYDIA (1) by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE |