The Trojan women of Euripides

And haunted! Ah, my side, my brow And temples! All with changeful pain My body rocketh, and would fain Move to the tune of tears that flow: For tears are music too, and keep A song unheard in hearts that weep. [She rises and gazes towards the Greek ships far off on the shore.

O ships, O crowding faces Of ships[9], O hurrying beat Of oars as of crawling feet, How found ye our holy places? Threading the narrows through, Out from the gulfs of the Greek, Out to the clear dark blue, With hate ye came and with joy, And the noise of your music flew, Clarion and pipe did shriek, As the coilèd cords ye threw, Held in the heart of Troy!

What sought ye then that ye came? A woman, a thing abhorred: A King's wife that her lord Hateth: and Castor's[10] shame Is hot for her sake, and the reeds Of old Eurôtas stir With the noise of the name of her. She slew mine ancient King, The Sower of fifty Seeds[11], And cast forth mine and me, As shipwrecked men, that cling To a