Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/94

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’Tis Apollo; all is Apollo,

O ye that love me, ’tis he long time hath planned

These things upon me evilly, evilly,

Dark things and full of blood.

I knew not; I did but follow

His way; but mine the hand

And mine the anguish. What were mine eyes to me

When naught to be seen was good?

’Tis even so; and Truth doth speak in thee.

To see, to endure, to hear words kindly spoken,

Should I have joy in such?

Out, if ye love your breath,

Cast me swift unto solitude, unbroken

By word or touch.

Am I not charged with death,

Most charged and filled to the brim

With curses? And what man saith

God hath so hated him?

Thy bitter will, thy hard calamity,

Would I had never known nor looked on thee!

My curse, my curse upon him,

That man whom pity held in the wilderness,

Who saved the feet alive from the blood-fetter

And loosed the barb thereof!