A streak of light before him lay, Told what was going on within; How keen the stars, his only thought; Centuries ago! Oh, strange indifference! low and high One that shall thrill the world for ever! Centuries ago! It is the calm and solemn night! For in that stable lay, new-born, The peaceful Prince of Earth and Heaven, Centuries ago! HOME-THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD 57 ROBERT BROWNING ENGLAND, 1812-1889 Home-Thoughts from Abroad Oh, to be in England Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds and all the swallows! And though the fields look rough with hoary dew, 5 10 15 20 Pheidippides First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock! Gods of my birthplace, dæmons and heroes, honor to all! Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal in praise - Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the ægis and spear! 5 Also ye of the bow and the buskin, praised be your peer, Now, henceforth and forever, - O latest to whom I upraise Hand and heart and voice! For Athens, leave pasture and flock! Present to help, potent to save, Pan-patron I call! Archons of Athens, topped by the tettix, see, I return ! See, 'tis myself here standing alive, no specter that 10 speaks! 15 Crowned with the myrtle, did you command me, Athens and you, "Run, Pheidippides, run and race, reach Sparta for aid! Persia has come, we are here, where is She?" Your command I obeyed, Ran and raced: like stubble, some field which a fire runs through Was the space between city and city; two days, two nights did I burn PHEIDIPPIDES 59 Over the hills, under the dales, down pits and up peaks. Into their midst I broke: breath served but for "Persia has come! Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and earth; Razed to the ground is Eretria - but Athens, shall Athens sink, Drop into dust and die - the flower of Hellas utterly die, Die with the wide world spitting at Sparta, the stupid, the stander-by? Answer me quick, what help, what hand do you stretch o'er destruction's brink? How when? No care for my limbs! - there's lightning in all and some — Fresh and fit your message to bear, once lips give it birth!" Every face of her leered in a furrow of envy, mistrust, each eye of her gave me its glitter of grati fied hate! Gravely they turned to take counsel, to cast for excuses. I stood Quivering, - the limbs of me fretting as fire frets, an inch from dry wood: 5 10 5 10 "Persia has come, Athens asks aid, and still they debate? Thunder, thou Zeus! Athene, are Spartans a quarry beyond Swing of thy spear? Phoibos and Artemis, clang them' Ye must'!" No bolt launched from Olumpos! Lo, their answer at last! "Has Persia come, does Athens ask aid, Sparta befriend? - may Nowise precipitate judgment - too weighty the issue at stake! Count we no time lost time which lags thro' respect to the Gods! Ponder that precept of old, 'No warfare, whatever the odds In your favor, so long as the moon, half-orbed, is unable to take Full-circle her state in the sky!' Already she rounds to it fast: Athens must wait, patient as we who judgment suspend." Athens, except for that sparkle, thy name, I had moldered to ash! That sent a blaze thro' my blood; off, off and away was I back, |