Classic and Contemporary Poetry
RHESUS: NIGHT WATCH, by EURIPIDES 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...THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN AEOLUS: THE OLD MEN by EURIPIDES |
|