Atalanta in Calydon eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 89 pages of information about Atalanta in Calydon.

Atalanta in Calydon eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 89 pages of information about Atalanta in Calydon.
sea
  Rolls without wind for ever, and the snow
  There shows not her white wings and windy feet,
  Nor thunder nor swift rain saith anything,
  Nor the sun burns, but all things rest and thrive;
  And these, filled full of days, divine and dead,
  Sages and singers fiery from the god,
  And such as loved their land and all things good
  And, best beloved of best men, liberty,
  Free lives and lips, free hands of men free-born,
  And whatsoever on earth was honourable
  And whosoever of all the ephemeral seed,
  Live there a life no liker to the gods
  But nearer than their life of terrene days. 
  Love thou such life and look for such a death. 
  But from the light and fiery dreams of love
  Spring heavy sorrows and a sleepless life,
  Visions not dreams, whose lids no charm shall close
  Nor song assuage them waking; and swift death
  Crushes with sterile feet the unripening ear,
  Treads out the timeless vintage; whom do thou
  Eschewing embrace the luck of this thy life,
  Not without honour; and it shall bear to thee
  Such fruit as men reap from spent hours and wear,
  Few men, but happy; of whom be thou, O son,
  Happiest, if thou submit thy soul to fate,
  And set thine eyes and heart on hopes high-born
  And divine deeds and abstinence divine. 
  So shalt thou be toward all men all thy days
  As light and might communicable, and burn
  From heaven among the stars above the hours,
  And break not as a man breaks nor burn down: 
  For to whom other of all heroic names
  Have the gods given his life in hand as thine? 
  And gloriously hast thou lived, and made thy life
  To me that bare thee and to all men born
  Thankworthy, a praise for ever; and hast won fame
  When wild wars broke all round thy father’s house,
  And the mad people of windy mountain ways
  Laid spears against us like a sea, and all
  Aetolia thundered with Thessalian hoofs;
  Yet these, as wind baffles the foam, and beats
  Straight back the relaxed ripple, didst thou break
  And loosen all their lances, till undone
  And man from man they fell; for ye twain stood
  God against god, Ares and Artemis,
  And thou the mightier; wherefore she unleashed
  A sharp-toothed curse thou too shalt overcome;
  For in the greener blossom of thy life
  Ere the full blade caught flower, and when time gave
  Respite, thou didst not slacken soul nor sleep,
  But with great hand and heart seek praise of men
  Out of sharp straits and many a grievous thing,
  Seeing the strange foam of undivided seas
  On channels never sailed in, and by shores
  Where the old winds cease not blowing, and all the night
  Thunders, and day is no delight to men.

  Chorus.

  Meleager, a noble wisdom and fair words
  The gods have given this woman, hear thou these.

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Atalanta in Calydon from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.