LONG LIFE NOT TO BE DESIRED (from "Oedipus at Colonus")

by: Sophocles

HO, loving life, hath sought

To outrun the appointed span,

Shall be arraigned before my thought

For an infatuate man.

Since the added years entail

Much that is bitter; -- joy

Flies out of ken, desire doth fail,

The wished-for moments cloy.

But when the troublous life,

Be it less or more, is past,

With power to end the strife

Comes rescuing Death at last.

Lo! the dark bridegroom waits! No festal choir

Shall grace his destined hour, no dance, no lyre!

 

Far best were ne'er to be;

But, once he hath seen the day,

Next best by far for each to flee

As swiftly as each may,

Yonder from whence he came;

For let but Youth be there

With her light fooleries, who shall name

The unnumbered brood of Care?

No trial spared, no fall!

Feuds, battles, murders, rage,

Envy, and last of all,

Despised, dim, friendless age!

Ay, there all evils, crowded in one room.

Each at his worst of ill, augments of gloom.

 

Such lot is mine, and round this man of woe,

As some gray headland of a northward shore

Bears buffets of all wintry winds that blow,

Fresh storms of Fate are bursting evermore

In thunderous billows, borne

Some from the waning light,

Some through mid-noon, some from the rising morn,

Some from the stars of Night.

• Oedipus Rex - A synopsis of the play by Sophocles.
• Sophocles - A biography and list of related links.
• Sophocles (c. 496-406 B.C.) - A biography.
• Sophocles and His Tragedies - Biography of the Greek dramatist and analysis of his poetic qualities.
• Sophocles Index - An index of articles on the Greek dramatist.
• Purchase books by Sophocles