Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RHESUS: NIGHT WATCH, by EURIPIDES



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RHESUS: NIGHT WATCH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Say, whose is the watch? Who exchanges
Last Line: Of dawn is so near.
Subject(s): Night; Bedtime


SAY, whose is the watch? Who exchanges
With us? The first planets to rise
Are setting; the Pleiades seven
Move low on the margin of heaven,
And the Eagle is risen and ranges
The mid-vault of the skies.
No sleeping yet! Up from your couches
And watch on, the sluggards ye are!
The moon-maiden's lamp is yet burning.
Oh, the morning is near us, the morning!
Even now his fore-runner approaches,
Yon dim-shining star.

Nay, hearken! Again she is crying
Where death-laden Simois falls,
Of the face of dead Itys that stunned her,
Of grief grown to music and wonder:
Most changeful and old and undying
The nightingale calls.
And on Ida the shepherds are waking
Their flocks for the upland. I hear
The skirl of a pipe very distant.
And sleep it falls slow and insistent.
'Tis perilous sweet when the breaking
Of dawn is so near.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net