Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/356
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320
The FIRST BOOK of
Unhappy Cadmus' fate who does not know?
And the long series of succeeding woe:
How oft' the furies, from the deeps of night,
Arose, and mix'd with men in mortal fight:
Th' exulting mother stain'd with filial blood;
The savage hunter, and the haunted wood;
The direful banquet why should I proclaim,
And crimes that grieve the trembling Gods to name?
E're I recount the sins of these profane,
The sun would sink into the western main,
And rising gild the radiant cast again.
Have we not seen (the blood of Laius shed)
The murd'ring son ascend his parent's bed,
Thro' violated nature force his way,
And stain the sacred womb where once he lay?
Yet now in darkness and despair he groans,
And for the crimes of guilty fate attones;
His sons with scorn their eyeless father view,
Insult his wounds, and make them bleed anew.
And the long series of succeeding woe:
How oft' the furies, from the deeps of night,
Arose, and mix'd with men in mortal fight:
Th' exulting mother stain'd with filial blood;
The savage hunter, and the haunted wood;
The direful banquet why should I proclaim,
And crimes that grieve the trembling Gods to name?
E're I recount the sins of these profane,
The sun would sink into the western main,
And rising gild the radiant cast again.
Have we not seen (the blood of Laius shed)
The murd'ring son ascend his parent's bed,
Thro' violated nature force his way,
And stain the sacred womb where once he lay?
Yet now in darkness and despair he groans,
And for the crimes of guilty fate attones;
His sons with scorn their eyeless father view,
Insult his wounds, and make them bleed anew.
Thy