Classic Poem

Thou art Tiresias, my hapless son,
Tho' sad indeed, yet more than others blessed.
Thy guides for ever gone from this dark life
Wherein we stumble, tho' our sight be keen;
A need the poorest creeping things enjoy,
And Gods themselves cannot restore when lost.
Great Pallas, wise Athena heard my prayer,
And granted that which makes thee more than man:
Yea, made thee as the Gods with power to see
Determined courses rule far times to come;
But made thee not as Gods with power to aid
The due fulfilment of Their wills divine.
Tho' thus denied; and men seem unto thee
As fevered victims in their chase for power;
Yet happily their tumult canst thou shun
For blossoming sweets that breathe around thine home,
Within whose shadow, smiling, dwells content.
Thy fateful glimpse of Wisdom left thee dazed
And listless from thy terrible delight:
Regardful, I discerned thine eyes were clear,
Without a wound or scar to mark their scath,
But taking shapes as mirrors void of life.
Ah, could I brook thee mine, but one of those
Who eat and sleep, and only sleep and eat!
Faith fired the hope my Goddess might incline
To hear the prayer of suffering Chariclo;
And, strong in resolution, timidly
Her temple steps ascending, bent I down
Before Athena's statue, where I wept
The lifelong issue or of joy or woe,
Awe weighted me to silence while I kissed
The ground made sacred by Her sandalled feet.
I strove to make each sentence close and true
To urge my supplication piercingly,
Lest its defect should cause thy suit to fail
And leave thee hapless.
" Goddess loved, " I cried,
" We know Thine owls, that blink in films, more wise
Than all the fluttering birds that haunt the day,
And sleep at dusk with bill pushed under wing.
When wasteful mice, unwelcome, taint the stores
Of corn our anxious men have heaped by toil,
Thy mute-winged favorites, sure of claw, descend,
Seize and devour the tiny plunderers.
" Thy serpents, lithe as winding water, glide,
And moving watchful with attentive eyes
Are wisely silent till a danger threats,
When, hissing terror, they recoil and gape,
And, breathing horror, fright away the foe
" Thy birds of battle crow to greet the morn,
Or challenge rivals to a gallant main;
Defending chick and dame, with wing and spur
They front the prowling fox and strike him dead.
" Enriching food, and mitigating pain,
Thine olives, more to man than horse or kine,
Cheer him with light, and shield his tender flesh
Against the sun at noon and wintry chill;
And make a woodland meet for loitering
When fall at eventide the shadows cool
" Kindly to man and his desires art Thou;
But kindliest when, decisive Monitress,
Directing him on narrow perilous paths!
So gracious in Thy justice, ah, vouchsafe
One beam of mercy on Tiresias,
Darkling from light's excess, O Loved, Revered!
For when by Fate impelled, when rapt he gazed
Near on Thy very loveliness, thro' light
Thy beauty shed, his mortal sight gave way
In utter gloom, and left him but as one
Helpless and hopeless in a dungeon bound.
Lift him from darkness into radiant day;
To freedom, joy; O bring him back to life! "

Athena heard me. Her divine response
Came as the marshalled spirits of a dream;
Immortal following Immortal feet,
As star on star successive close in light,
And spacious wonder shining fills the heavens.

" Severely fortune smote Tiresias,
When he beheld Me neither clad for war,
Nor in the garment worn beneath My mail;
For as I glowing from the river sprang
The Gods themselves could scarce behold Me thus!
And mortal vision lacks the strength to bear
The lustre of My presence unassuaged.
Therefore thy son was blinded, and remains
In outer darkness till his days are done
As voices mute can never sing again,
The Gods are powerless to recover power;
But injured worth receiving sure amends,
Tiresias, gladdened by immortal light,
The time, ere he beheld Me verily,
Shall seem uncertain, and a wavering mist,
Where hovered vague inexplicable shapes,
In phantom mimicry of restless man,
Building up palaces with crumbling towers,
And sailing fleets to sea-washed mountain crags
That fold their tops in cloud; where trampling hosts
Without a sound in ghostly combat close,
And high-walled towns are captured by surprise.
Where whirlwinds spin ripe harvest into ruin;
And ever-striving ever ends in waste,
Until thro' heaven a sword of sunshine cleaves
The shrinking vapour down and strikes the earth,
When, softly melting, opens forth the day!
Blest in this light will your Tiresias dwell,
And, Godlike, thro' the tangle of desires,
Shall mark its value in an aim pursued,
And balance cost against the substance won
Now are his inborn hopes for ever fled!
But cheered by Truth's imperishable smile;
Aloof from strife, well knowing craft and strength,
Unceasing struggle for ascendency,
He shall, forecasting issues, now behold
The future fixed and certain as the past.
His sayings shall be winged with prophecy!
Fulfilment following prescience, in due course
He will be honoured as the living voice
Discoursing Destiny and laws divine!
Tho' towns arisen in splendour from the earth
Are worn to dust by Time's unheeded feet,
Time cannot, nor can God-compelling Fate
Once overthrow a wise man's simple word;]
Whose wisdom mellowing slowly age by age
Augments the treasures of futurity
But nerves must tingle to the touch of joy;
Piping and dancing after labour done!
As now Tiresias can watch no more
The shining clouds nor shadows they let fall;
The many-coloured garb of spring to him
Being but as winter's gray, his vision closed:
I will the hindrance from his ears withdraw,
And then your son shall understand the birds,
Their music, and the meaning in their songs:
And with these blest ones, in their lovely lives
Rejoicing, he will know his vanished world
But as the memory of a raging war
Where sang and whistled arrows carrying death.