Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/91

vv. 1261–1286 He dashed him on the chamber door. The straight

Door-bar of oak, it bent beneath his weight,

Shook from its sockets free, and in he burst

To the dark chamber.

There we saw her first

Hanged, swinging from a noose, like a dead bird.

He fell back when he saw her. Then we heard

A miserable groan, and straight he found

And loosed the strangling knot, and on the ground

Laid her.—Ah, then the sight of horror came!

The pin of gold, broad-beaten like a flame,

He tore from off her breast, and, left and right,

Down on the shuddering orbits of his sight

Dashed it: “Out! Out! Ye never more shall see

Me nor the anguish nor the sins of me.

Ye looked on lives whose like earth never bore,

Ye knew not those my spirit thirsted for:

Therefore be dark for ever!”

Like a song

His voice rose, and again, again, the strong

And stabbing hand fell, and the massacred

And bleeding eyeballs streamed upon his beard,

Wild rain, and gouts of hail amid the rain.

Behold affliction, yea, afflictions twain

From man and woman broken, now made one

In downfall. All the riches yester sun

Saw in this house were rich in verity.

What call ye now our riches? Agony,

Delusion, Death, Shame, all that eye or ear

Hath ever dreamed of misery, is here.

And now how fares he? Doth the storm abate?