Monologue Flashcards
Monologue
Look upon me, friends, and pity me. Turning back at the night’s edge to say good-by to the sun that shines for me no longer; now sleepy Death Summons me down to Acheron, That cold shore: there is no bride song there, nor any music. How often I have heard the store of Niobe, Tantalos’ wretched daughter. How the stone Clung fast about her, ivy-close: and they say the rain falls endlessly and rifting soft snow; her tears are never done. I feel the loneliness of her death in mine. You laugh at me. Ah, friends, friends, Can you not wait until I am dead? O Thebes, O men many-charioted, in love with Fortune, Dear spring of Dirce, sacred Theban grove, Be witnesses for me, denied all pity, Unjustly judge! And think a word of love for her whose path turns under dark earth, where there are no more tears. You have touched it at last: that bridal bed. Unspeakable, horror of son an mother mingling: Their crime, infection of all our family! O Oedipus, father and brother! Your marriage strikes from the grave to murder mine. I have been a stranger here in my own land. All my life the blasphemy of my birth has followed me. Let me go, since all your words are bitter and the very light of the sun is cold to me. Lead me to my vigil, where I must have neither love nor lamentation; no song, but silence.
