Fragment of a Greek Tragedy.
445
|
Why should I mention Io? Why indeed? I have no notion why. Epode. But now does my boding heart, Unhired, unaccompanied, sing A strain not meet for the dance. Yea even the palace appears To my yoke of circular eyes (The right, nor omit I the left) Like a slaughterhouse, so to speak, Garnished with woolly deaths And many shipwrecks of cows. I therefore in a Cissian strain lament; And to the rapid, Loud, linen-tattering thumps upon my chest Resounds in concert The battering of my unlucky head. | |
| Eriphyla (within). | O, I am smitten with a hatchet's jaw; And that in deed and not in word alone. |
| Cho. | I thought I heard a sound within the house Unlike the voice of one that jumps for joy. |
| Eri. | He splits my skull, not in a friendly way, Once more: he purposes to kill me dead. |
| Cho. | I would not be reputed rash, but yet I doubt if all be gay within the house. |
| Eri. | O! O! another stroke! that makes the third. He stabs me to the heart against my wish. |
| Cho. | If that be so, thy state of health is poor; But thine arithmetic is quite correct. |
|
***
A. E. Housman.
| |