Poems (Linn)/Helen of Troy
HELEN OF TROY.
HELEN of Troy, hard was thy ruling fate!Woman for whom not only nations wagedLong bloody war, but gods their wills engagedAnd stooping downward from their high estateFought hand to hand upon the Trojan plains.Woman whose beauty was the sculptor's dream,Whose life has been a universal theme;What of thy heart, its pleasure and its pains?Thou wert a woman only! and I readBetween the lines the sorrows that were thine,Thy struggles to resist the tempter's snare.Ah! for thy weakness and thy love I plead;What counts to thee art's praise, or verse divine?Sin and thy country's curse thy doom to bear.