Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79. | | | | Greece: Thebæ (Thebes) | | Thebes | | Seneca (c. 3 B.C.–65 A.D.) |
| | Translated by J. B. Patterson
THEBES! who shall weep aright for thee, | |
| No more the valiant and the free? | |
| Thou cradle-land of many a god, | |
| Stoop’st thou beneath a tyrant’s rod? | |
| She,—from whose fields together rose | 5 |
| The sworded bands of spell-born foes, | |
| Whose walls to rear, Amphion’s tones | |
| Led, as in dance, the charmed stones; | |
| For whom so oft eternal Jove | |
| Hath left his radiant seats above: | 10 |
| To whom in former years was given | |
| To shrine her favorites in heaven; | |
| Who, haply, gods will yet create,— | |
| She bows beneath the cankering weight | |
| Of iron bondage and disgrace. | 15 |
| How are ye fallen, Cadmean race! | |
| Shall a proud outcast vilely spurn | |
| Your freedom’s rights, ye dragon-born? | |
| Shall he usurp your country’s throne, | |
| A sordid exile from his own? | 20 |
| Whose crimes affront the land and main, | |
| Shall he Herculean Thebes profane? | | | | |
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