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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AN ONLY SON by LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM

First Line: O MY POOR SON, O ANTICLES, AND POOR ME, WHO BEHELD
Last Line: COME QUICKLY AND TAKE ME OUT OF LIFE: LET THIS LONG DAY BE DONE!
Subject(s): SONS;

O MY poor son, O Anticles, and poor me, who beheld
The body I bare, the only one, amid the leaping fires!
But eighteen years, life at the full! and now in lonely eld
I sit and think on good things gone and empty old desires.
Would I might go to Hades' house, where all is dark and still!
No joy have I of dawn, no joy to see the travelling sun.
O Anticles, my poor, poor bairn, thy weird was woven for ill;
Come quickly and take me out of life: let this long day be done!



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