To ward him secretly
From the arrow that slays askance?
If honour to such things be,
Why should I dance my dance?
[Antistrophe.
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.
[Jocasta comes out from the Palace followed by handmaids bearing incense and flowers.
Jocasta.
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;
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