Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ANTIGONE: THE LAST JOURNEY, by SOPHOCLES


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ANTIGONE: THE LAST JOURNEY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Look, my countrymen
Last Line: To the bed of my rest.


LOOK, my countrymen,
as I go my last road,
and see my last of the sunlight
now and for ever.
Death, who puts all to their sleep,
leads my living body
to his dark lakeside.
For me were no choristers
to sing the bride home;
no song of the wedding night
they sang for me.
I shall lie with the waters of Death.

Tales of doom I have heard,
and hers most pitiful
who wed here, out of Phrygia,
-- a daughter of Tantalus --
and died on Sipylus top.
Taut as ivy
the hardness of stone crept up
and held her fast.
She wastes away, so they tell,
in everlasting rain
and falls of snow;
from under her weeping brows
scarped rocks run wet.
Most like her
I am borne by destiny
to the bed of my rest.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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