Page:Sophocles (Storr 1912) v1.djvu/217

 Untended; for this frame is all too weak

To move without the help of guiding hand.

Then I will go perform these rites, but where

To find the spot, this have I yet to learn.

Beyond this grove; if thou hast need of aught,

The guardian of the close will lend his aid.

I go, and thou, Antigone, meanwhile

Must guard our father. In a parent’s cause

Toil, if there be toil, is of no account.

Ill is it, stranger, to awake

Pain that long since has ceased to ache,

And yet I fain would hear—

What thing?

Thy tale of cruel suffering

For which no cure was found,

The fate that held thee bound.

O bid me not (as guest I claim

This grace) expose my shame.

The tale is bruited far and near,

And echoes still from ear to ear.

The truth, I fain would hear. 195