The Journal Wk. 41
The Oresteia: Agamemnon
Agamemnon, 41-59
We cried out to the god of war
And he forgave us our sins:
For our prayers the tide turned red;
Our souls were pierced by it,
Our bodies washed by it.
Agamemnon, 122-139
The Trojan War
Go back across the years –
And what have you but death?
The ruin of Troy and hearts that never sleep;
Necessity and lust in bed
And then the girl, and then the blood
Mingling with older blood, and sin;
Hers the first of all the deaths to come.
I say the heart does not, cannot sleep
And by war the gods have won their praise –
We are old, what else is left to us?
The ruin of hearts
Amid which Troy does not, cannot sleep.
The Journal is a section where I post weekly poems responding to something I’m reading. The current subject is Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, and you can find last week’s edition here:
