From Oedipus King of Thebes Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes by Sophocles

My poor, poor children! Surely long ago I have read your trouble. Stricken, well I know, Ye all are, stricken sore: yet verily Not one so stricken to the heart as I. Your grief, it cometh to each man apart For his own loss, none other's; but this heart For thee and me and all of us doth weep. Wherefore it is not to one sunk in sleep Ye come with waking. Many tears these days For your sake I have wept, and many ways Have wandered on the beating wings of thought. And, finding but one hope, that I have sought (Sidenote: vv. 70-86) And followed. I have sent Menoikeus' son, Creon, my own wife's brother, forth alone To Apollo's House in Delphi, there to ask What word, what deed of mine, what bitter task, May save my city. And the lapse of days Reckoned, I can but marvel what delays His journey. 'Tis beyond all thought that thus He comes not, beyond need. But when he does, Then call me false and traitor, if I flee Back from whatever task God sheweth me.

Oedipus Monologue from Oedipus King of Thebes Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes

Rehearse Oedipus's monologue