Agamemnon

Aeschylus

Aeschylus. The poetical works of Robert Browning, Volume 13. Browning, Robert, translator; Berdoe, Edward, editor. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1889.

  1. Much having been before to purpose spoken,
  2. The opposite to say I shall not shamed be:
  3. For how should one, to enemies, — in semblance,
  4. Friends, — enmity proposing, — sorrow’s net-frame
  5. Enclose, a height superior to outleaping?
  6. To me, indeed, this struggle of old — not mindless
  7. Of an old victory — came: with time, I grant you!
  8. I stand where I have struck, things once accomplished:
  9. And so have done, — and this deny I shall not, —
  10. As that his fate was nor to fly nor ward off.
  11. A wrap-round with no outlet, as for fishes,
  12. I fence about him — the rich woe of the garment:
  13. I strike him twice, and in a double Ah-me!
  14. He let his limbs go — there! And to him, fallen,
  15. The third blow add I, giving — of Below-ground
  16. Zeus, guardian of the dead — the votive favour.
  17. Thus in the mind of him he rages, falling,
  18. And blowing forth a brisk blood-spatter, strikes me
  19. With the dark drop of slaughterous dew — rejoicing
  20. No less than, at the god-given dewy-comfort,