Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/21

vv. 40–69 Therefore now, O Lord and Chief,

We come to thee again; we lay our grief

On thy head, if thou find us not some aid.

Perchance thou hast heard Gods talking in the shade

Of night, or eke some man: to him that knows,

Men say, each chance that falls, each wind that blows

Hath life, when he seeks counsel. Up, O chief

Of men, and lift thy city from its grief;

Face thine own peril! All our land doth hold

Thee still our saviour, for that help of old:

Shall they that tell of thee hereafter tell

“By him was Thebes raised up, and after fell!”

Nay, lift us till we slip no more. Oh, let

That bird of old that made us fortunate

Wing back; be thou our Oedipus again.

And let thy kingdom be a land of men,

Not emptiness. Walls, towers, and ships, they all

Are nothing with no men to keep the wall.

My poor, poor children! Surely long ago

I have read your trouble. Stricken, well I know,

Ye all are, stricken sore: yet verily

Not one so stricken to the heart as I.

Your grief, it cometh to each man apart

For his own loss, none other’s; but this heart

For thee and me and all of us doth weep.

Wherefore it is not to one sunk in sleep

Ye come with waking. Many tears these days

For your sake I have wept, and many ways

Have wandered on the beating wings of thought.

And, finding but one hope, that I have sought