The Beacon Fires

A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ )

A GLEAM – a gleam – from Ida’s height,

By the Fire-god sent, it came;

From watch to watch it leapt, that light,

As a rider rode the flame!

It shot through the startled sky,

And the torch of that blazing glory

Old Lemnos caught on high,

On its holy promontory,

And sent it on, the jocund sign,

To Athos, Mount of Jove divine.

Wildly the while, it rose from the isle,

So that the might of the journeying Light

Skimmed over the back of the gleaming brine!

Farther and faster speeds it on,

Till the watch that keeps Macistus steep

See it burst like a blazing Sun!

Doth Macistus sleep

On his tower-clad steep?

No! rapid and red doth the wild fire sweep;

It flashes afar on the wayward stream

Of the wild Euripus, the rushing beam!

It rouses the light on Messapion’s height,

And they feed its breath with the withered heath.

But it may not stay!

And away – away –

It bounds in its freshening might.

Silent and soon,

Like a broadened moon,

It passes in sheen, Asopus green,

And bursts on Cithaeron gray!

The warder wakes to the Signal-rays,

And it swoops from the hill with a broader blaze.

On, on the fiery Glory rode;

Thy lonely lake, Gorgopis, glowed!

To Megara’s Mount it came;

They feed it again

And it streams amain-

A giant beard of Flame!

The headland cliffs that darkly down

O’er the Saronic waters frown,

Are passed with the Swift One’s lurid stride,

And the huge rock glares on the glaring tide.

With mightier march and fiercer power

It gained Arachne’s neighboring tower;

Thence on our Argive roof its rest it won,

Of Ida’s fire the long-descended Son!

Bright Harbinger of glory and of joy!

So first and last with equal honor crowned,

In solemn feasts the race-torch circles round. –

And these my heralds! – this my SIGN OF PEACE;

Lo! while we breathe, the victor lords of Greece

Stalk, in stern tumult, through the halls of Troy!

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Poems in English 

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• Impromptu: To Frances Garnet Wolseley poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• If I To You But Sorry Bring poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• I Chide Not At The Seasons poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Hymn To Death poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Grandmother’s Teaching poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Gleaners Of Fame poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Farewell To Spring poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Golden Age poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• “The flower, full blown, now bends the stalk, now breaks” poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Fallen Elm poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Evening Light poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Dregs Of Love poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Door Of Humility poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Death Of Huss poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Dance At Darmstadt poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Challenge Answered poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Aquittal Of Phryne poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• “Take not the Gods to task, for they are wise” poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Sweet Love Is Dead poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin

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