Agamemnon

Aeschylus

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

  1. Of Atreus: for that wife, the many-husbanded,
  2. Appointing many a tug that tries the limb,
  3. While the knee plays the prop in dust, while, shred
  4. To morsels, lies the spear-shaft; in those grim
  5. Marriage-prolusions when their Fury wed
  6. Danaoi and Troes, both alike. All’s said:
  7. Things are where things are, and, as fate has willed,
  8. So shall they be fulfilled.
  9. Not gently-grieving, not just doling out
  10. The drops of expiation — no, nor tears distilled —
  11. Shall he we know of bring the hard about
  12. To soft — that intense ire
  13. At those mock rites unsanctified by fire.
  14. But we pay nought here: through our flesh, age-weighed,
  15. Left out from who gave aid
  16. In that day, — we remain,
  17. Staying on staves a strength
  18. The equal of a child’s at length.
  19. For when young marrow in the breast doth reign,
  20. That’s the old man’s match, — Ares out of place