Fragment of an “Antigone”

&nbsp       &nbspThe Chorus

Well hath he done who hath seized happiness!
For little do the all-containing hours,
Though opulent, freely give.
Who, weighing that life well
Fortune presents unpray'd,
Declines her ministry, and carves his own;
And, justice not infringed,
Makes his own welfare his unswerved-from law.

He does well too, who keeps that clue the mild
Birth-Goddess and the austere Fates first gave.
For from the day when these
Bring him, a weeping child,
First to the light, and mark
A country for him, kinsfolk, and a home,
Unguided he remains,
Till the Fates come again, this time with death.

&nbsp       &nbspIn little companies,
And, our own place once left,
Ignorant where to stand, or whom to avoid,
By city and household group'd, we live; and many shocks
Our order heaven-ordain'd
Must every day endure:
Voyages, exiles, hates, dissensions, wars.

&nbspBesides what waste he makes,
&nbspThe all-hated, order-breaking,
&nbspWithout friend, city, or home,
&nbspDeath, who dissevers all.

&nbspHim then I praise, who dares
&nbspTo self-selected good
Prefer obedience to the primal law,
Which consecrates the ties of blood; for these, indeed,
&nbspAre to the Gods a care;
&nbspThat touches but himself.
For every day man may be link'd and loosed
&nbspWith strangers; but the bond
&nbspOriginal, deep-inwound,
&nbspOf blood, can he not bind,
&nbspNor, if Fate binds, not bear.

&nbspBut hush! HæmonHæmon

But like me, she, wroth, complaining,
Succumb'd to the envy of unkind Gods;
And, her beautiful arms unclasping,
Her fair youth unwillingly gave.

&nbsp       &nbspThe Chorus

Nor, though enthroned too high
To fear assault of envious Gods,
His beloved Argive seer would Zeus retain
From his appointed end

In this our Thebes; but when
His flying steeds came near
To cross the steep Ismenian glen,
The broad earth open'd, and whelm'd them and him;
And through the void air sang
At large his enemy's spear.

And fain would Zeus have saved his tired son
Beholding him where the Two Pillars stand
O'er the sun-redden'd western straits,
Or at his work in that dim lower world.
Fain would he have recall'd
The fraudulent oath which bound
To a much feebler wight the heroic man.

But he preferr'd Fate to his strong desire.
Nor did there need less than the burning pile
Under the towering Trachis crags,
And the Spercheios vale, shaken with groans,
And the roused Maliac gulph,
And scared Œtæan snows,
To achieve his son's deliverance, O my child!