Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SUPPLICES: DIRGE, by EURIPIDES


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SUPPLICES: DIRGE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I bring from funeral
Last Line: I shall not see you, loving and loved.


SONS. CHORUS

SONS.

I bring from funeral,
Sad mother, I bring the ashes of my father,
A burden burdened with woe; my all in all
Compact I gather.

CHO.

O let me weep, let weep:
How could you bring such tears to shed
For loving mother of men dead,
Once in Mycenae gloriously embodied,
Now ashes, a small heap?

SONS.

Childless, childless your doom;
But dead my luckless father, and I'll stand
Forlorn an orphan in a lonely room,
Not held in father's hand.

CHO.

O let me weep, let weep:
Where are my sons for whom so hard
I worked, and where my pangs' reward,
And mother's milk, and sallies of meeting kisses,
When eyes would watch, not sleep?

SONS.

All dead, none lives, dear father, alas,
All dead.

CHO.

The thin air them now has,
Ashes crumbled in flame,
Winged way to death they came.

SONS.

Father, your sons' grief hear you yet?
Shall ever I fight with shield on, that your dying,
Please God, may other deaths beget?

SONS.

Your father's vengeance, if God will,
May yet come.

CHO.

Not yet sleeps this ill.
Alas, enough of fate
Is mine, grief amply great.

SONS.

Will bright Asopus ever again
Welcome me leading Greeks in golden chariots,
The avenger of my father slain?

SONS.

Father, my eyes yet seem to see you whole --

CHO.

Kissing a kiss on your dear cheek.

SONS.

The counsel you could speak
Is gone away upon wind.

CHO.

Both weep -- mother is left her dole,
And father mourned shall haunt son's mind.

SONS.

The heavy sorrow I have did me destroy.

CHO.

O this dear Ash to breast I'll hold.

SONS.

I wept to hear this told
Most cruel, my heart was moved.

CHO.

Son you are gone, your mother's joy,
I shall not see you, loving and loved.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net