Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CLOUDS: SONG [OR CHORUS] OF THE CLOUDS, by ARISTOPHANES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CLOUDS: SONG [OR CHORUS] OF THE CLOUDS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Clouds, ever drifting in air
Last Line: Herald the spring with a battle of melody and music of clarinet droning.
Subject(s): Clouds


Clouds, ever drifting in air,
Rise, O dewy anatomies, shine to the world in splendour.
Upward from thundering Ocean who fathered us
rise, make way to the forested pinnacles.
There let us gaze upon
summits aerial opening under us;
Earth, most holy, and fruits of our watering;
rivers melodious, rich in divinity;
seas, deep-throated, of echo reverberant.
Rise, for his Eye, many-splendoured, unwearying, burns in the front of
Heaven.
Shake as a cloak from our heavenly essences
vapour and rain, and at Earth in our purity with far-seeing eye let us
wonder.

Maidens that minister rain,
Come, gaze down on the city of Pallas, the land of Cecrops.
O for the lustre, the manhood, the charm of her!
There are the Rites unspoken, inviolate, -- holy solemnities
calling the faithful to Mysteries visible.
Treasures of marble in high-roofed sanctuaries
honour the Blessed; and holy processionals,
feast and blood-offering, wreathing of flower on flower
praise everlasting give them.
Merrily also the choirs of Bromios
herald the Spring with a battle of melody and music of clarinet droning.





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