Two Tragedies of Seneca: Medea and The Daughters of Troy...

Chorus. Sweet is a nation's grief to one who grieves— Sweet are the lamentations of a land! The sting of tears and grief is less when shared 1045 By many; sorrow, cruel in its pain, Is glad to see its lot by many shared, To know that not alone it suffers loss. None shuns the hapless fate that many bear; None deems himself forlorn, though truly so, 1050 If none are happy near him. Take away His riches from the wealthy, take away The hundred cattle that enrich his soil, The poor will lift again his lowered head; 'Tis only by comparison man's poor. 1055 O'erwhelmed in hopeless ruin, it is sweet To see none happy. He deplores his fate Who, shipwrecked, naked, finds the longed-for port Alone. He bears with calmer mien his fate Who sees, with his, a thousand vessels wrecked 1060 By the fierce tempest, sees the broken planks Heaped on the shore, the while the northwest wind Drives on the coast, nor he alone returns A shipwrecked beggar. When the radiant ram, The gold-fleeced leader of the flock, bore forth 1065 Phryxus and Helle, Phryxus mourned the fall Of Helle dropped into the Hellespont. Pyrrha, Deucalion's wife, restrained her tears, As he did, when they saw the sea, naught else, And they alone of living men remained. 1070 The Grecian fleet shall scatter far and wide Our grief and lamentations. When shall sound The trumpet, bidding spread the sails? When dip The laboring oars, and Troy's shores seem to flee? When shall the land grow faint and far, the sea 1075 Expand before, Mount Ida fade behind? Then grows our sorrow; then what way Troy lies Mother and son shall gaze.