Sophocles: Thou goest then, and leavest none behind Worthy to rival thee! <br /> <br />Aeschylos: Nay, say not so. <br />Whose is the hand that now is pressing mine? <br />A hand I may not ever press again! <br />What glorious forms hath it brought boldly forth <br />From Pluto's realm! The blind old Oedipos <br />Was led on one side by Antigone, <br />Sophocles propt the other. <br /> <br />Sophocles: Sophocles <br />Sooth'd not Prometheus chaind upon his rock, <br />Keeping the vultures and the Gods away; <br />Sophocles is not greater than the chief <br />Who conquered Ilion, nor could he revenge <br />His murder, or stamp everlasting brand <br />Upon the brow of that adulterous wife. <br /> <br />Aeschylos: Live, and do more. <br />Thine is the Lemnian ile, <br />And thou hast placed the arrows in the hand <br />Of Philoctetes, hast assuaged his wounds <br />And given his aid without which Greece had fail'd. <br /> <br />Sophocles: I did indeed drive off the pest of flies; <br />We also have our pest of them which buz <br />About our honey, darken it, and sting; <br />We laugh at them, for under hands like ours, <br />Without the wing that Philoctetes shook, <br />One single feather crushes the whole swarm. <br />I must be grave. <br />Hath Sicily such charms <br />Above our Athens? Many charms hath she, <br />But she hath kings. Accursed be the race! <br /> <br />Aeschylos: But where kings honor better men than they <br />Let kings be honored too. <br />The laurel crown <br />Surmounts the golden; wear it, and farewell.<br /><br />Walter Savage Landor<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/aeschylos-and-sophocles/
