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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=569610" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Prologue To The Argive Women</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">(Odysseus before the House of Paris.)</div><div style="margin:10px 0">OD. About this wicked house ten years<br>The strife 'twixt Troy and Greece has surged<br>Since rifling Paris, thief and traitor,<br>Drew all men to the hue and cry<br>Menelaus made after him ;<br>And me, Laertes' son, my lands<br>And wife and child forsook, he drew<br>Into the weary insatiable years<br>Of slaughter, man to man, and Doom<br>Long-gathered, palsying heart and heart,<br>And Valour pent in little room—<br>Ten years abrim, but in this tenth,<br>Now at the last, within this hour,<br>To drown the city and the sin<br>In one great well of blood, hence flooding<br>Where Paris keeps her his delight,<br>Soon to prove bane of Troy—and his.<br>His, for her heart is changed ; she now<br>Longs for her husband, for her child,<br>For Lacedaemon, where she was born<br>And wooed, and learned her shameful lore,<br>The which now loathing, him her teacher,<br>Him her sleek thief she scorns, being all<br>Virgin for him who loved her first,<br>Nor ever swerved through years denied ;<br>And he, at last in sight<br>Of his reward, kneels for the crown,<br>He for the crown, a crowned king,<br>Of his high heart and purpose.<br>Yet<br>Not he alone, nor Greece alone<br>Made war in this high quarrel. Nay,<br>The gods themselves flung into it<br>Their pomp and panoply of storm,<br>Terrors of sky and sea, great winds,<br>Thunder and blown fire, and flood tides<br>And irresistible surge of the main,<br>Some to uphold the Dardan house,<br>And some the wile of Kypris even<br>Whose sweet poison made Helen sinner ;<br>And some, as raving Ares, thus<br>Fulfill'd their natures, to whom men<br>Are as a tilth to weed, with spear<br>In visible hand, and battle shout<br>In terrible mouth ; and met in shock<br>Other celestial forms, and them<br>Highest of all and most to us—<br>Nearer to us for our more need—<br>Who cried upon the sin : faith broke,<br>Troth-plight made mockery, oath in vain,<br>Shameful things shameless done—and them<br>I serve, and with them plot the end<br>Of Troy and of the war.<br>So here<br>Enwombed in wood, we wait the yeaning<br>Of that great Horse, the which by wit<br>Athene-given Epeios made<br>And I conceived, hid up in arms,<br>The greatest of us and the best<br>Hidden here within the walls,<br>Within the heart of obdurate Troy,<br>Ready to issue forth,<br>Seize gates and open, that the tide<br>Even now girding at the walls<br>Surge in and cleanse the iniquity<br>Which to high Heaven has bared so long<br>A braggart blasphemous head.<br>But first<br>There is a deed for her to do,<br>Who by one wrong inuring wrong<br>Must now requite it, she alone<br>Before she can anoint the knees<br>Of her offended with her tears,<br>Before he dare to lift her up<br>To his fair bed and board ; for Zeus<br>Who set our world, set it in law<br>Which not himself can break. Ye men<br>Who live by labour, what ye sow</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That ye shall eat, and what ye eat<br>That ye shall win again by sowing.<br>Therefore let Helen sow in tears<br>And reap her joy, and eat with rue<br>That which she shameful sowed. Thus she<br>I serve, the gray-eyed Goddess, bids,<br>And thus her messenger I await<br>Helen within the wicked house<br>In this last throw of Troy with Doom.<br>(He hides himself. The curtains part and<br>disclose the women's house in the House of<br>Paris. The play begins.)</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Maurice+Hewlett">Maurice Hewlett</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=569610" data-title="Prologue To The Argive Women de Maurice Hewlett" data-description="(Odysseus before the House of Paris.)

OD. About this wicked house ten years
The strife 'twixt Troy and Greece has surged
Since rifling Paris, thief and traitor,
Drew all men to the hue and cry
Menelaus made after him ;
And me, Laertes' son, my la..."></div>
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