Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/182

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Chor. Of all the land far famed for goodly steeds,

Thou com'st, Ο stranger, to the noblest spot,

Colonos, glistening bright,

Where evermore, in thickets freshly green,

The clear-voiced nightingale

Still haunts, and pours her song,

By purpling ivy hid,

And the thick leafage sacred to the God,

With all its myriad fruits,

By mortal's foot untouched,

By sun's hot ray unscathed,

Sheltered from every blast;

There wanders Dionysos evermore,

In full, wild revelry,

And waits upon the Nymphs who nursed his youth.

And there, beneath the gentle dews of heaven,

The fair narcissus with its clustered bells

Blooms ever, day by day,

Of old the wreath of mightiest Goddesses;

And crocus golden-eyed;

And still unslumbering flow