Balaustion’s adventure by Robert Browning. F. H. Lungren, Artist.
A DEPUTATION starts from Rhodes to go to Athens, at the time of her struggles with the League. As the travelers go they are pursued by pirates. Balaustion tells the story:
“So furiously our oarsman rowed and rowed;
And when the bars flagged somewhat, dash and dip.
As we approached the coast and safety, so
That we could hear behind us plain the threats
And curses of the pirate panting tip
In one more throe and passion of pursuit,—
Seeing our oars flag in the rise and fall,
I sprang upon the altar by the mast.
And sang aloft—some genius prompting me—
That song of ours which saved at Salamis:
O’ sons of Greeks! go, set your country free.
Free your wives, free your children, free the fanes
O’ the gods, your fathers founded,— sepulchres
They sleep in! Or save all, or all be lost!'”
Robert Browning 1812 – 1889, was an English poet and dramatist.
Source: Character sketches of romance, fiction and the drama by Rev. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, 1892. A revised American edition of the readers handbook. Edited by Marion Harland.
Related: Louis XIV. , Louis XV. , Louis XVI., Baroque, Rococo, Directoire, French Revolution, Regency, Empire, Restoration or Romanticism fashion era. German Biedermeier.
