Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/67

vv. 893–916 To ward him secretly

From the arrow that slays askance?

If honour to such things be,

Why should I dance my dance?

I go no more with prayers and adorations

To Earth’s deep Heart of Stone,

Nor yet the Abantes’ floor, nor where the nations

Kneel at Olympia’s throne,

Till all this dark be lightened, for the finger

Of man to touch and know.

O Thou that rulest—if men rightly call

Thy name on earth—O Zeus, thou Lord of all

And Strength undying, let not these things linger

Unknown, tossed to and fro.

For faint is the oracle,

And they thrust it aside, away;

And no more visible

Apollo to save or slay;

And the things of God, they fail

As mist on the wind away.

[ comes out from the Palace followed by handmaids bearing incense and flowers.

Lords of the land, the ways my thought hath trod

Lead me in worship to these shrines of God

With flowers and incense flame. So dire a storm

Doth shake the King, sin, dread and every form

Of grief the world knows. ’Tis the wise man’s way

To judge the morrow by the yester day;