{"id":3008,"date":"2013-07-13T01:45:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3008"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:45:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:19","slug":"32-two-poems-in-quantitative-hexameters-contd-vol-02-collected-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/02-collected-poems\/32-two-poems-in-quantitative-hexameters-contd-vol-02-collected-poems","title":{"rendered":"-32_Two Poems in Quantitative Hexameters – CONTD.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

 <\/td>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Ilion<\/span><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBk-IV<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven as here upon earth I knew, in heaven as in Sparta;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI on Elysian fields will enjoy thee as now in the
\n\t\t\tTroad."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSilent a moment she lingered like one who is lured by a music<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRapturous, heard by himself alone and his lover
\n\t\t\tin heaven,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen in her beauty compelling she rose up divine among women.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Yes, it is good," she cried, "what the gods do
\n\t\t\tand actions of mortals;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGood is this play of the world; it is good, the joy and the
\ntorture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPraised be the hour of the gods when I wedded
\n\t\t\tbright Menelaus!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPraised, more praised the keels that severed the seas towards
\nHelen<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChurning the senseless waves that knew not the
\n\t\t\tbliss of their burden!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPraised to the end the hour when I passed through the doors
\nof my husband<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLaughing with joy in my heart for the arms that
\n\t\t\tbore and enchained me!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNever can Death undo what life has done for us, Paris.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor, whatsoever betide, can the hour be unlived
\n\t\t\tof our rapture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis too is good that nations should meet in the shock of the
\nbattle,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeroes be slain and a theme be made for the songs
\n\t\t\tof the poets,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSongs that shall thrill with the name of Helen, the beauty of
\nParis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWell is this also that empires should fall for
\n\t\t\tthe eyes of a woman;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWell that for Helen Hector ended, Memnon was slaughtered,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStrong Sarpedon fell and Troilus ceased in his
\n\t\t\tboyhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroy for Helen burning, her glory, her empire, her riches,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis is the sign of the gods and the type of
\n\t\t\tthings that are mortal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou who art kin to the masters of heaven, unconstrained like
\nthy kindred<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHigh on this ancient stage of the Troad with gods
\n\t\t\tfor spectators<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPlay till the end thy part, O thou wondrous and beautiful
\nactor:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFight and slay the Greeks, my countrymen; victor
\n\t\t\treturning<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTake for reward of the play, thy delight of Argive Helen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tForce from my bosom a hint of the joy denied to
\n\t\t\tthe death-claimed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRob in the kiss of my lips a pang from the raptures of
\nheaven."<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tClasping him wholly her arms of desire were a
\n\t\t\tgirdle of madness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCestus divine of the dread Aphrodite. He with her kisses<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlushed like the gods with unearthly wine and
\n\t\t\trejoiced in his ruin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThus while they conversed now in this hour that was near to
\ntheir parting<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLast upon earth, a fleet-footed slavegirl came to the
\nchamber:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Paris, thy father and mother desire thee; there
\n\t\t\tin the strangers’<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOuter hall Aeneas and Halamus wait for thy coming."<\/span><\/p>\n

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So with the Argive he wended to Priam’s ample chamber<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar in Laomedon’s house where Troy looked upwards to Ida.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPriam and Hecuba there, the ancient grey-haired rulers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWaiting him sat in their chairs of ivory calm in their greatness;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHid in her robes at their feet lay Cassandra crouched from her visions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Since, O my father,” said Paris, “thy thoughts have been with me, thy
\nblessing<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSurely shall help me today in my strife with the strength of Achilles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSurely the gods shall obey in the end the might of our spirits,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPallas and Hera, flame-sandalled Artemis, Zeus and Apollo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEver serve the immortal brightnesses man when he stands up<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFirm with his will uplifted a steadfast flame towards the heavens,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAres works in his heart and Hephaestus burns in his labour.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPriam replied to his son: “Forewilled by the gods, Alexander,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll things happen on earth and yet we must strive who are mortals,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKnowing all vain, yet we strive; for our nature seizing us always<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDrives like the flock that is herded and urged towards shambles or pasture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo have the high gods fashioned these tools of their action and pleasure;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFailure and grief are their engines no less than the might of the victor;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey in the blow descend and resist in the sobs of the smitten.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch are their goads that I too must walk in the paths that are common,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven I who know must send for thee, moved by Cassandra.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpeak, O my child, since Apollo has willed it, once, and be silent.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in her raiment hidden Cassandra answered her father:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“No, for my heart has changed since I cried for him, vexed by Apollo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhy should I speak? For who will believe me in Troy? who believed me<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEver in Troy or the world? Event and disaster approve me<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly, my comrades, not men in their thoughts, not my brothers and kinsmen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll by their hopes are gladly deceived and grow wroth with the warner,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHalf-blind prophets of hope entertained by the gods in the mortal!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWiser blind, if nothing they saw or only the darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI too once hoped when Apollo pursued me with love in his temple.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRound me already there gleamed the ray of the vision prophetic,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThrill of that rapture I felt and the joy of the god in his seeing<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor did I know that the knowledge of mortals is bound unto blindness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEither only they walk mid the coloured dreams of the senses<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTreading the greenness of earth and deeming the touch of things real,<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nPage \u2013 398<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nOr if they see, by the curse of the gods their sight into falsehood<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEasily turns and leads them more stumbling astray than the sightless.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo are we either blind in a darkness or dazzled by seeing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThus have the gods protected their purpose and baffled the sages;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver the face of the Truth their shield of gold is extended.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut I deemed otherwise, urged by the Dreadful One, he who sits always<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVeiled in us fighting the gods whom he uses. I cried to Apollo,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGive me thy vision sheer, not such as thou giv’st to thy prophets,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroubled though luminous; clear be the vision and ruthless to error,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar-darting god who art veiled by the sun and by death thou art shielded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen I shall know that thou lovest.’ He gave, alarmed and reluctant,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDriven by Fate and his heart; but I mocked him, I broke from my promise,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCourage fatal helping my heart to its ruin with laughter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlways now I remember his face that grew tranquil and ruthless,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHear the voice divine and implacable: Since thou deceivest<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven the gods and thou hast not feared to lie to Apollo,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpeak shalt thou henceforth only truth, but none shall believe thee:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tScorned in thy words, rejected yet more for their bitter fulfilment,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nScourged by the gods thou must speak though thy sick heart yearns to be silent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor in this play thou hast dared to play with the masters of heaven,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGirl, it is thou who hast lost; thy voice is mine and thy bosom.’<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSince then all I foreknow; therefore anguish is mine for my portion:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSince then all whom I love must perish slain by my loving.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven of that I denied him, violent force shall bereave me<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGrasped mid the flames of my city and shouts of her merciless victors.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut to Cassandra answered gently the voice of her brother:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Sister of mine, afflicted and seized by the dreadful Apollo,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll whose eyes can pierce that curtain, gaze into dimness;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis they have glimpsed and that they imagine deceived by their natures<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSeeing the forms in their hearts of dreadful things and of joyous;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs in the darkness our eyes are deceived by shadows uncertain,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch is their sight who rend the veil that the dire gods have woven.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBusy our hearts are weaving thoughts and images always:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAfter their kind they see what here we call truth. So thy nature<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTender and loving, plagued by this war and its fears for thy loved ones,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSees calamity everywhere; when the event like the vision<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nPage \u2013 399<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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Seems, as in every war the beloved must fall and the cherished,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen the heart cries, It has happened as all shall happen I mourn for.’<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll that was bright it misses and only seizes on sorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDear, on the brightness look and if thou must prophesy, tell us<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRather of great Pelides slain by my spear in the onset.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut with a voice of grief the sister answered her brother:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Yes, he shall fall and his slayer too perish and Troy with his slayer.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in his spirit rejoicing Paris answered Cassandra:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Let but this word come true; for the rest, the gods shall avert it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLook once more, O Cassandra, and comfort the heart of thy mother,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSee, O seer, my safe return with the spoils of Achilles.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd with a voice of grief the sister answered her brother:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Thou shalt return for thy hour while Troy yet stands in the sunshine.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in his spirit exultant Paris seizing the omen:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Hearst thou, my father, my mother? She who still prophesied evil<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow perceives of our night this dawning. Yet is it grievous,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSince through a heart that we love must be pierced the heart of Achilles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFate, with this evil satisfied, turn in the end from Troya.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBless me, my father, and thou, O Hecuba, mother long-patient,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStill forgive that thy children have fallen for Helen and Paris.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTenderly yearning his mother drew him towards her and murmured:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“All for thy hyacinth curls was forgiven even from childhood<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd for thy sunlit looks, O wonder of charm, O Paris.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParis, my son, though Troy must fall, thy mother forgives thee,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlessing the gods who have lent thee to me for a while in their sunshine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTheirs are fate and result, but ours is the joy of our children;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven the griefs are dear that come from their hands while they love us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFight and slay Achilles, the murderer dire of thy brothers;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVenging Hector return, my son, to the clasp of thy mother.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in his calm august to Paris Priam the monarch:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Victor so mightst thou come, so gladden the heart of thy mother.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen to the aged father of Paris Helen the Argive<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBright and immortal and sad like a star that grows near to the dawning<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd on its pale companions looks who now fade from its vision:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Me too pardon and love, my parents, even Helen,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCause of all bane and all death; but I came from the gods for this ruin<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBorn as a torch for the burning of empires, cursed with this beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nPage \u2013 400<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nNor have I known a father’s embrace, a mother’s caresses,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut to the distant gods I was born and nursed as an alien<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHere by earth from fear, not affection, compelled by the thunders.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTwo are her monstrous births, from the Furies and from the immortals;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEither touching mortality suffers and bears not the contact.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI have been both, a monster of doom and a portent of beauty.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSlowly Priam the monarch answered to Argive Helen:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“That which thou art the gods have made thee; thou couldst not be other:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat which thou didst, the gods have done; thou couldst not prevent them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho here shall blame or whom shall he pardon? Should not my people<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRail at me murmuring, Priam has lost what his fathers had gathered;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCursed is this king by heaven and cursed who are born as his subjects’?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMasked the high gods act; the doer is hid by his working.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEach of us bears his punishment, fruit of a seed that’s forgotten;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEach of us curses his neighbour protecting his heart with illusions:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore like children we blame each other and hate and are angry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTake, my child, the joy of the sunshine won by thy beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI who lodge on this earth as an alien bound by the body,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWearing my sorrow even as I wear the imperial purple,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPraise yet the gods for my days that have seen thee at last in my ending.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFitly Troy may cease having gazed on thy beauty, O Helen.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe became silent, he ceased from words. But Paris and Helen<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLightly went and gladly; pursuing their footsteps the mother,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMother once of Troilus, mother once of Hector,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStood at the door with her death in her eyes, nor returned from her yearning,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut as one after a vanishing sunbeam gazes in prison,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGazed down the corridors after him, long who had passed from her vision.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen in the silent chamber Cassandra seized by Apollo<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStaggered erect and tossing her snow-white arms of affliction<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCried to the heavens in her pain; for the fierce god tortured her bosom:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Woe is me, woe for the guile and the bitter gift of Apollo!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWoe, thrice woe, for my birth in Troy and the lineage of Teucer!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo do you deal, O gods, with those who have served you and laboured,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThose who have borne for your sake the evil burden of greatness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlessed is he who holds mattock in hand or who bends o’er the furrow<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTaking no thought for the good of mankind, with no yearnings for
\nknowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Woe unto me for my wisdom which none shall value nor hearken!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWoe unto thee, O King, for thy strength which shall not deliver!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBetter the eye that is sealed, more blest is the spirit that’s feeble.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVainly your hopes with iron Necessity struggle, O mortals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVirtue shall lie in her pangs, for the gods have need of her torture;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSin shall be scourged, though her deeds were compelled by the gods in their
\nanger.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNone shall avail in the end, the coward shall die and the hero.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroy shall fall in her sin and her virtues shall not protect her;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tArgos shall grow by her crimes till the gods shall destroy her for ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow have I fruit of thy love, O Loxias, dreadful Apollo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWoe is me, woe for the flame that approaches the house of my fathers!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWoe is me, woe for the hand of Ajax laid on my tresses!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWoe, thrice woe to him who shall ravish and him who shall cherish!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWoe for the ships that shall bound too swift o’er the azure Aegean!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWoe for thy splendid shambles of hell, O Argive Mycenae!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWoe for the evil spouse and the house accursed of Atreus!”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo with her voice of the swan she clanged out doom on the peoples,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver the palace of Priam and over the armed nation<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMarching resolved to the war in the pride of its centuries conquered,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCenturies slain by a single day of the anger of heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDim to the thoughts like a vision of Hades the luminous chamber<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGrew; in his ivory chair King Priam sat like a shadow<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThroned mid the ghosts of departed kings and forgotten empires.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut in his valiance careless and blithe the Priamid hastened<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeeking the pillared megaron wide where Deiphobus armoured<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWaited his coming forth with the warlike chiefs of the Trojans.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow as he passed by the halls of the women, the chambers that harboured<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDaughters and wives of King Priam and wives of his sons and their playmates,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNiches of joy that were peopled with murmurs and sweet-tongued laughters,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTroubled like trees with their birds in a morning of sun and of shadow<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere in some garden of kings one walks with his heart in the sunshine,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOut from her door where she stood for him waiting Polyxena started,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSeized his hand and looked in his face and spoke to her brother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen not even the brilliant strength of Paris availed him;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nJoyless he turned his face from her eyes of beauty and sorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nPage \u2013 402<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\n“So it is come, the hour that I feared, and thou goest, O Paris,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tArmed with the strength of Fate to strike at my heart in the battle;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor he is doomed and thou and I, a victim to Hades.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis thou preferrest and neither thy father could move nor thy mother<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBurning with Troy in their palace, nor could thy country persuade thee,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor dost thou care for thy sister’s happiness pierced by thy arrows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWill she remember it all, my sister Helen, in Argos<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPassing tranquil days with her husband, bright Menelaus,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHolding her child on her knees? But we shall lie joyless in Hades.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParis replied: “O sister Polyxena, blame me not wholly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWe by the gods are ensnared; for the pitiless white Aphrodite<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDoing her will with us both compels this. Helpless our hearts are<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd when she drives perforce must love, for death or for gladness:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeighed in unequal scales she deals them to one or another.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHappy who holding his love can go down into bottomless Hades.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut to her brother replied in her anguish the daughter of Priam:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Evilly deal with my days the immortals happy in heaven;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYes, I accuse the gods and I curse them who heed not our sorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis they have done with me, forcing my heart to the love of a foeman,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne whose terrible hands have been stained with the blood of my brothers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis now they do, they have taken the two whom I love beyond heaven,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBrother and husband, and drive to the fight to be slain by each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNay, go thou forth; for thou canst not help it, nor I, nor can Helen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSince I must die as a pageant to satisfy Zeus and his daughter,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSince now my heart must be borne as a victim bleeding to please them,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo let it be, let me deck myself and be bright for the altar.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto her chamber she turned with her great eyes blind, unregarding;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe for a moment stood, then passed to the megaron slowly;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDim was the light in his eyes and clouded his glorious beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMeanwhile armed in the palace of Priam Penthesilea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNear her her captains silent and mighty stood, from the Orient<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDistant clouds of war, Surabdas and iron Surenas,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPharatus planned like the hills, Somaranes, Valarus, Tauron,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHigh-crested Sumalus, Arithon, Sambus and Artavoruxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere too the princes of Phrygian Troya gathered for counsel<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd with them Eurus came, Polydamas’ son, who most dearly<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLoved was of all the Trojan boys by the glorious virgin.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n
\nPage \u2013 403<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

She from her arming stayed to caress his curls and to chide him:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Eurus, forgotten of grace, dost thou gad like a stray in the city<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEager to mix with the armoured men and the chariots gliding?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHigh on the roofs wouldst thou watch the swaying speck that is battle?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBetter to aim with the dart or seek with thy kind the palaestra;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo wilt thou sooner be part of this greatness rather than straining<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYearn from afar to the distance that veils the deeds of the mighty.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut with an anxious lure in his smile on her Eurus answered:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Not that remoteness to see have I come to the palace of Priam<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLeaving the house of my fathers, but for the spear and the breastpiece.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHast thou not promised me long I shall fight in thy car with Achilles?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDoubtful he eyed her, a lion’s cub at play in his beauty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd mid the heroes who heard him laughter arose for a moment,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet with a sympathy stirred; they remembered the days of their childhood,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThought of Troy still mighty, life in its rose-touched dawning<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen they had longed for the clash of the fight and the burden of armour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGlad, with the pride of the lioness watching her cub in the desert,  \u2014
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCouchant she lies with her paws before her and joys in his gambols,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver the prey as he frisks and is careless,  \u2014  answered the virgin:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Younger than thou in my nation have mounted the steed and the war-car.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEurus, arm; from under my shield thou shalt gaze at the Phthian,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tReaching my shafts for the cast from the rim of my car in the battle<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHandle perhaps the spear that shall smite down the Phthian Achilles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat sayst thou, Halamus? Were not such prowess a perfect beginning<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWorthy Polydamas’ son and the warlike house of Antenor?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHalamus started and smiting his hand on the grief of his bosom,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSombre replied and threatened with Fate the high-hearted virgin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Virgin armipotent, wherefore mockst thou thy friend, though unwitting?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNay,  \u2014  for the world will know at the end and my death cannot hide
\nit,  \u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSlain by a father’s curse we fight who are kin to Antenor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTake not the boy in thy car, lest the Furies, Penthesilea,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAim through the shield and the shielder to wreak the curse of the grandsire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey will not turn nor repent for thy strength nor his delicate beauty.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSwiftly to Halamus answered the high-crested might of the virgin:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Curses leave lightly the lips when the soul of a man is in anger<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as blessings easily crowd round the head that is cherished.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet have I never seen that a curse has sharpened a spear-point;<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 404<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nNever Death drew back from the doomed by the power of a blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tValour and skill and chance are Fate and the gods and the Furies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGive me the boy; a hero shall come back formed from the onset.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Do as thou wilt,” replied Halamus; “Fate shall guard or shall end him.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen to the boy delighted and smiling-eyed and exultant<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCried with her voice like the call of heaven’s bugles waking the heroes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlown by the lips of gold-haired Valkyries, Penthesilea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Go, find the spear, gird the sword, don the cuirass, child of the mighty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArmed when thou standst on the plain of the Xanthus, field of thy fathers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSee that thou fight on this day like the comrade of Penthesilea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBud of a hero, gaze unalarmed in the eyes of Achilles.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLight as a hound released he ran to the hall of the armour<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere were the shields of the mighty, the arms of the mansion of Teucer;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere from the house-thralls he wrung the greaves and the cuirass and helmet<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroilus wore, the wonderful boy who, ere ripened his prowess,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tConquered the Greeks and drove to the ships and fought with Achilles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThese on his boyish limbs he donned and ran back exulting<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBearing spears and a sword and rejoiced in the clank on his armour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile Deiphobus, head of the mellay, moved by Aeneas<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOpened the doors of their warlike debate to the strength of the virgin:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Well do I hope that our courage outwearying every opponent<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTriumph shall lift to her ancient seat on the Pergaman turrets;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClouds from Zeus come and pass; his sunshine eternal survives them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet we are few in the fight and armoured nations besiege us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSurging on Troy today a numberless foe well-captained<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHardly pushed back in shock after shock with the Myrmidon numbers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSwelled returns; they fight with a hope that broken refashion<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHelpful skies and a man now leads them who conquers and slaughters,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOne of the sons of the gods and armed by the gods for the struggle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe unhelped save by Ares stern and the mystic Apollo<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd but as mortals striving with stubborn mortal courage,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHated and scorned and alone in the world, by the nations rejected,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFight with the gods and mankind and Achilles and numbers against us<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKeeping our country from death in this bitter hour of her fortunes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTherefore have prudence and hardihood severed contending our counsels<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhether far out to fight on the seaward plain with the Argives<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr behind Xanthus the river impetuous friendly to Troya.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 405<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This my brother approves and the son of Antenor advises,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPrudent masters of war who prepare by defence their aggression.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut for myself from rashness I seek a more far-seeing wisdom,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot behind vain defences choosing a tardy destruction,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRather as Zeus with his spear of the lightning and chariot of tempest<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tScatters and chases the heavy mass of the clouds through the heavens,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo would I hunt the Greeks through the plains to their lair by the Ocean,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStraight at the throat of my foeman so would I leap in the battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSwiftly to smite at the foe is prudence for armies outnumbered.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen to the Dardanid answered the high-crested Penthesilea:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“There where I find my foe I will fight him, whether by Xanthus<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOr at the fosse of the ships where they crouch behind bulwarks for shelter,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr if they dare by Scamander the higher marching on Troya.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSternly approved her the Trojan, “So should they fight who would triumph<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMeeting the foe ere he move in his will to the clash of encounter.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut with his careless laughter the brilliant Priamid Paris:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Joy of the battle, joy of the tempest, joy of the gamble<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMated are in thy blood, O virgin, daughter of Ares.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou like the deathless wouldst have us combat, us who are human?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCome, let the gods do their will with us, Ares let lead and his daughter!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlways the blood is wiser and knows what is hid from the thinker.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLife and treasure and fame to cast on the wings of a moment,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFiercer joy than this the gods have not given to mortals.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHighly to Paris the virgin armipotent Penthesilea,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Paris and Halamus, shafts of the war-god, fear not for Troya.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot as a vaunt do I speak it, you gods who stern-thoughted watch us,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut in my vision of strength and the soul that is seated within me,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot while I live and war shall the host of the Myrmidon fighters<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForcing the currents lave, as once they were wont, in Scamander<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVaunting their victor car-wheels red with the blood of the vanquished.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen when I lie by some war-god slain on the fields of the Troad,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFight again if you will behind high-banked fast-flowing Xanthus.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHalamus answered her, “Never so by my will would I battle<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlinging Troy as a stake on the doubtful diceboard of Ares.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut you have willed it and so let it be; yet hearken my counsel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMassed in the fight let us aim the storm of our spears at one greatness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMighty Pelides’ head who gives victory still to the Argives.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 406<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nEasy the Greeks to destroy lay Achilles once slain on the Troad,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut if the Peleid lives the fire shall yet finish with Troya.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nJoin then Orestes’ speed to the stubborn might of Aeneas,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParis’ fatal shafts and the missiles of Penthesilea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOthers meanwhile, a puissant screen of our bravest and strongest,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFighting shall hold back Pylos and Argolis, Crete and the Locrian.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou, Deiphobus, front the bronze-clad stern Diomedes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI with Polydamas’ spear will dare to restrain and discourage<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAjax’ feet though they yearn for pursuit and are hungry for swiftness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKnot of retreat behind let some strong experienced captain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStand with our younger levies guarding the fords of the Xanthus,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFortify the wavering line and dawn as fresh strength on the wearied.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen if the fierce gods prevail we shall perish not driven like cattle<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver the plains, but draw back sternly and slowly to Troya.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnswered the Priamid, “Wise is thy counsel, branch of Antenor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChaff are the southern Achaians, only the hardihood Hellene,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly the savage speed of the Locrian rescues their legions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMarshal we so this field. Stand, Halamus, covering Xanthus,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHelping our need when the foe press hard on the Ilian fighters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParis, my brother, thou with our masses aid the Eoan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI with Aeneas’ single spear am enough for the Argive.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Gladlier” Halamus cried “would I fight in the front with the Locrian!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis too let be as you will; for one is the glory and service<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFighting in front or guarding behind the fate of our country.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo in their thoughts they ordered battle. Meanwhile Eurus<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGleaming returned and the room grew glad with the light of his armour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGlad were its conscious walls of that vision of boyhood and valour;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGods of the household sighed and smiled at his courage and beauty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey who had seen so many pass over their floors and return not<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHasting to battle, the fair and the mighty, the curled and the grizzled,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll of them treading one path like the conscious masks of one pageant<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWinding past through the glare of a light to the shadows beyond them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut on her captains proudly smiling Penthesilea<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeized him and cried aloud, her wild and warlike nature<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoved by the mother’s heart that the woman loses not ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Who then shall fear for the fate of Troy when such are her children?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVerily, Eurus, yearning has seized me to meet thee in battle<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n
\nPage \u2013 407<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Rather than Locrian Ajax, rather than Phthian Achilles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere acquiring a deathless fame I would make thee my captive,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGreedy and glad who feel as a lioness eyeing her booty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNay, I can never leave thee behind, my delicate Trojan,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut, when this war ends, will bear thee away to the hills of my country<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd, as a robber might, with my captive glad and unwilling<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBring thee a perfect gift to my sisters Ditis and Anna.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEurus, there in my land thou shalt look on such hills as thy vision<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGazed not on yet, with their craggy tops besieging Cronion,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSheeted in virgin white and chilling his feet with their vastness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou shalt rejoice in our wooded peaks and our fruit-bearing valleys,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLakes of Elysium dreaming and wide and rivers of wonder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll day long thou shalt glide between mystic woodlands in silence<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBroken only by call of the birds and the plashing of waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere shalt thou see, O Eurus, the childhood of Penthesilea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThou shalt repose in my father’s house and walk in the gardens<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGreen where I played at the ball with my sisters, Ditis and Anna.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMusing she ceased, but if any god had touched her with prescience<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBidding her think for the last time now of the haunts of her childhood,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGaze in her soul with a parting love at the thought of her sisters<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd of the lovely and distant land where she played through her summers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBrief was the touch; for she changed at once and only of triumph<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDreamed and only yearned in her heart for the shock of Achilles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo they passed from the halls of Priam fated and lofty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHalls where the air seemed sobbing yet with the cry of Cassandra;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tClad in their brilliant armour, bright in their beauty and courage,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSons of the passing demigods, they to their latest battle<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDown the ancestral hill of the Pergamans moved to the gateway.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLoud with an endless march, with a tireless gliding to meet them,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll Troy streamed from her streets and her palaces armed for the combat.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen to the voice of Deiphobus clanging high o’er the rumour<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWide the portals swung that shall close on a blood-red evening,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSlow, foreboding, reluctant, and through the yawn of the gateway<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDrove with a cry her steeds the virgin Penthesilea<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalling aloud, “O steeds of my east, we drive to Achilles.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBlithe in the car behind her Eurus scouted around him<\/span><\/p>\n

\nScared with his eyes lest Antenor his grandsire should rise in the gateway,<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nHardly believing his fate that led him safe through the portals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAfter her trampled and crashed the ranks of her orient fighters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nParis next with his hosts came brilliant, gold on his armour,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGold on his helm; a mighty bow hung slack on his shoulder,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPropped o’er his arm a spear, as he drove his car through the gateway.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNext Deiphobus drove and the hero strong Aeneas,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLeading their numbers on. Behind them Dus and Polites,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHelenus, Priam’s son, Thrasymachus, grizzled Aretes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCame like the tempest his father, Adamas, son of the Northwind  \u2014
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOrus old in the fight and Eumachus, kin to Aeneas,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00a8<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho was
\n\t\t\tCre\u00fcsa’s brother and richest of men in the Troad<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAfter Antenor only and Priam, Ilion’s monarch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHalamus drove and Arintheus led on his Lycian levies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho were the last to speed out of Troya of all those legions<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDoomed to the sword? for never again from the ancient city<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFoot would march or chariots crash in their pride to the Xanthus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAetor the old and Tryas the conqueror known by the Oxus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey in the portals met and their ancient eyes on each other<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLooked amazed, admiring on age the harness of battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey in the turreted head of the gateway halted and conversed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Twenty years have passed, O Tryas, chief of the Trojans,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSince in the battle thy car was seen and the arm of thy prowess<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAge has wronged. Why now to the crowded ways of the battle<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMove once more thy body infirm and thy eyes that are faded?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd to Antenor’s brother the Teucrian, “Thou too, O Aetor,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOld and weary hast sat in thy halls and desisted from battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow in Troy’s portals I meet thee driving forth to the mellay.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAetor answered, “Which then is better, to wretchedly perish<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCrushed by the stones of my falling house or slain like a victim<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDragged through the blood of my kin on the sacred hearth of my fathers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOr in the battle to cease mid the war-cry and hymn of the chariots<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKnowing that Troy yet stands in her pride though doomed in her morrows?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo have the young men willed and the old like thee who age not,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOld are thy limbs, but thy heart is still young and hot for the war-din.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTryas replied, “To perish is better for man or for nation<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNobly in battle, nor end disgraced by disease or subjection.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo have I come here to offer this shoulder Laomedon leaned on,<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n
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\n

Arms that have fought by the Oxus and conquered the Orient’s heroes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFamous in Priam’s wars, and a heart that is faithful to Troya.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThese I will offer to death on his splendid altar of battle,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTribute from Ilion. If she must fall, I shall see not her ending.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAetor replied to Tryas, “Then let us perish together,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJoined by the love of our race who in life were divided in counsel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll things embrace in death and the strife and the hatred are ended.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSilent together they drove for the last time through Ilion’s portals<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut with the rest to the fight towards the sea and the spears of the Argives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly once, as they drove, they gazed back silent on Troya<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLifting her marble pride in the golden joy of the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo through the ripening morn the army, crossing Scamander,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFilling the heavens with the dust and the war-cry, marched on the Argives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar in front Troy’s plain spread wide to the echoing Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n
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\t\t\t<\/font>\n\t\t\t<\/td>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Ilion Bk-IV   Even as here upon earth I knew, in heaven as in Sparta; I on Elysian fields will enjoy thee as now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-collected-poems","wpcat-57-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}