Cassandra

Of all the luckless women ever born,             Or ever to be born here on our earth,             Most pitied be Cassandra, from her birth         Condemned to woes unearned by her. Forlorn,         She early read great Ilium's doom, and tried,             Clear-eyed, clear-voiced, her countrymen to warn.             But - she Apollo's passion in high scorn         Had once repelled, and of his injured pride         The God for her had bred this punishment, -             That good, or bad, all things she prophesied             Though true as truth, should ever be decried         And flouted by the people. As she went         Far from old Priam's gates among the crowd,             To save her country was her heart intent.             Pure, fearless, on an holy errand bent,         They called her "mad," who was a Princess proud.         "Alas, the City falls! Beware the horse!             Woe, woe, the Greeks!" Ah! why was she endowed             With this sad gift? Able to pierce the cloud         That veils the future, - in its wasting course         She could not stop the storm. Bitter the pain             When those she loved and trusted - weak resource -             Her prophecies believed not; when the force         Of all her pleading spent itself in vain.         Poor Maid! She knew no greater agony             When dragged a slave in Agamemnon's train.             And though she fell - by Clytemnestra slain -         She smiled on Death who eased her misery.         For oh - what grief to one of faithful heart             It is - to know the evils that must be.             Helpless their doom to make the imperilled see,         Unskilled to shield them from the fatal dart!