John Reade

Antigone

If Homer ne'er had sung; if Socrates
Had never lived in virtue's cause to die;
If the wild chorus of the circling seas
Had never echoed back poor Sappho's sigh;
If Sparta had not, with the purest blood,
Traced on all time the name "Thermopylæ";
If Greece, united through the surging flood
Of Persian pride, had not arisen free;
If nought of great, or wise, or brave, or good
Had proved thee, Hellas, what thou wast to be;
Save that thou didst create "Antigone"—
Thou still had'st in the van of nations stood.
Fallen are thy noblest temples, but above
Them all still stands thy shrine of Woman's Love.