Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PISIDICE, by ANDREW LANG Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The daughter of the lesbian king Last Line: To dreamless rest, pisidicê! Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Hearts; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens; Male-female Relations | ||||||||
THE daughter of the Lesbian king Within her bower she watched the war, Far off she heard the arrows ring, The smitten harness ring afar; And, fighting from the foremost car, Saw one that smote where all must flee; More fair than the Immortals are He seemed to fair Pisidicê! She saw, she loved him, and her heart Before Achilles, Peleus' son, Threw all its guarded gates apart, A maiden fortress lightly won! And, ere that day of fight was done, No more of land or faith recked she, But joyed in her new life begun, Her life of love, Pisidicê! She took a gift into her hand, As one that had a boon to crave; She stole across the ruined land Where lay the dead without a grave, And to Achilles' hand she gave Her gift, the secret postern's key. "To-morrow let me be thy slave!" Moaned to her love Pisidicê. Ere dawn the Argives' clarion call Rang down Methymna's burning street; They slew the sleeping warriors all, They drove the women to the fleet, Save one, that to Achilles' feet Clung, but, in sudden wrath, cried he: "For her no doom but death is meet," And there men stoned Pisidicê. In havens of that haunted coast, Amid the myrtles of the shore, The moon sees many a maiden ghost Love's outcast now and evermore. The silence hears the shades deplore Their hour of dear-bought love; but thee The waves lull, 'neath thine olives hoar, To dreamless rest, Pisidicê! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MISERY AND SPLENDOR by ROBERT HASS THE APPLE TREES AT OLEMA by ROBERT HASS DOUBLE SONNET by ANTHONY HECHT CONDITIONS XXI by ESSEX HEMPHILL CALIFORNIA SORROW: MOUNTAIN VIEW by MARY KINZIE SUPERBIA: A TRIUMPH WITH NO TRAIN by MARY KINZIE COUNSEL TO UNREASON by LEONIE ADAMS TWENTY QUESTIONS by DAVID LEHMAN |
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