Agamemnon

Aeschylus

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

  1. Heavy the fate, indeed, — to disobey!
  2. Yet heavy if my child I slay,
  3. The adornment of my household: with the tide
  4. Of virgin-slaughter, at the altar-side,
  5. A father’s hands defiling: which the way
  6. Without its evils, say?
  7. How shall I turn fleet-fugitive,
  8. Failing of duty to allies?
  9. Since for a wind-abating sacrifice
  10. And virgin blood, — ’t is right they strive,
  11. Nay, madden with desire.
  12. Well may it work them — this that they require!
  1. But when he underwent necessity’s
  2. Yoke-trace, — from soul blowing unhallowed change
  3. Unclean, abominable, — thence—another man —
  4. The audacious mind of him began
  5. Its wildest range.
  6. For this it is gives mortals hardihood —
  7. Some vice-devising miserable mood
  8. Of madness, and first woe of all the brood.