Croesus

[ZaunköniG]

Croesus

"O SOLON ! Solon ! wist ye of this hour,
When midst the splendors that thine eyes did see,
Undazzled by my gilded vanity,
Thou yet didst say how fleet is human power?

Lo ! from this funeral pyre each flashing tower,
Each sapphire dome, each gate of ivory,
Makes all my court a hateful thing to me,
While here in death's grim shadow now I cower."

So Croesus cried when fiery death was nigh.
Remembering Solon's words of long ago;
Then the great Persian king, who paused hard by,

Heard the sore wailing of his fallen foe,
And said : "Unbind him thence, he shall not die
Behold, one day I too shall be brought low !"