27.12.2010, 17:17
PHILOCTETES.
Silent they gaze from Ilion's battlements —
Yon sail to-day has brought her latest foe ;
Silent they gaze upon the plain below,
And hear glad voices from the Grecian tents :
Not now Achilles, shouting from the trench,
Dismays them—but that friend of Hercules,
Arm'd with the Hydra's blood to fight for Greece,
Though once deported for his rueful stench ;
The cruel shafts will soon be on the wing.
So brief is that beleaguer'd city's span ;
The leech has gone to that ill-savour'd man :
The foot of Philoctetes yearns to spring
Like young Protesilaus ! Troy hath learn'd
Her fate,—the ten-years' exile hath return'd !
Onward the fatal hours and minutes steal,
To-morrow shall his archery commence,
And Troy's proud walls be left without defence.
Open and mortal as Achilles' heel :
To-morrow that old suitor shall exact
Grim vengeance, now for ten years overdue —
For Menelaus and OEnone too —
The adulterer shall be slain—the city sackt :
Night falls—The mighty bow lies still on board,
And dips and rises with the heaving wave :
The ship-light flickers on that thirsty hoard
Of arrows, which the twelve-fold labourer gave ;
The night-watch halts beside it, pondering all
The dreadful purport of his chief's recall.
Silent they gaze from Ilion's battlements —
Yon sail to-day has brought her latest foe ;
Silent they gaze upon the plain below,
And hear glad voices from the Grecian tents :
Not now Achilles, shouting from the trench,
Dismays them—but that friend of Hercules,
Arm'd with the Hydra's blood to fight for Greece,
Though once deported for his rueful stench ;
The cruel shafts will soon be on the wing.
So brief is that beleaguer'd city's span ;
The leech has gone to that ill-savour'd man :
The foot of Philoctetes yearns to spring
Like young Protesilaus ! Troy hath learn'd
Her fate,—the ten-years' exile hath return'd !
Onward the fatal hours and minutes steal,
To-morrow shall his archery commence,
And Troy's proud walls be left without defence.
Open and mortal as Achilles' heel :
To-morrow that old suitor shall exact
Grim vengeance, now for ten years overdue —
For Menelaus and OEnone too —
The adulterer shall be slain—the city sackt :
Night falls—The mighty bow lies still on board,
And dips and rises with the heaving wave :
The ship-light flickers on that thirsty hoard
Of arrows, which the twelve-fold labourer gave ;
The night-watch halts beside it, pondering all
The dreadful purport of his chief's recall.