Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Mithridates at Chios
By John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)K
How, when the Chian’s cup of guilt
Was full to overflow, there came
God’s justice in the sword of flame
That, red with slaughter to its hilt,
Blazed in the Cappadocian victor’s hand?
But, not unheard of awful Jove,
The sighing of the island slave
Was answered, when the Ægean wave
The keels of Mithridates clove,
And the vines shrivelled in the breath of war.
The victor cried, “to Heaven’s decree!
Pluck your last cluster from the vine,
Drain your last cup of Chian wine;
Slaves of your slaves, your doom shall be,
In Colchian mines by Phasis rolling dark.”
From the hoar sea-god’s dusky caves;
The priestess rent her hair and cried,
“Woe! woe! The gods are sleepless-eyed!”
And, chained and scourged, the slaves of slaves,
The lords of Chios into exile went.
So Hellas sang her taunting song,
“The fisher in his net is caught,
The Chian hath his master bought”;
And isle from isle, with laughter long,
Took up and spread the mocking parable.
Bring their avenging cycle round,
And, more than Hellas taught of old,
Our wiser lesson shall be told,
Of slaves uprising, freedom-crowned,
To break, not wield, the scourge wet with their blood and tears.