The greybeard kneels to clasp Achilles' knee
proposing both sides pause to tend their dead.
A vision, what the hero'll never be;
old age won't thin the tresses on his head.
Diminished to out-live his therapon,
his destiny's fulfilled with Hector's fall.
There's Neoptolemus when he'll be gone
to devastate the city and its wall.
Undying Thetis grieves for such a son
who'll never get to hold his little boy.
She's done with mortals' trifles "lost" or "won"
that grandson joins him on the pyre of Troy.
He'll die without a grey hair, or a scar
eclipsing--briefly--every other star.
proposing both sides pause to tend their dead.
A vision, what the hero'll never be;
old age won't thin the tresses on his head.
Diminished to out-live his therapon,
his destiny's fulfilled with Hector's fall.
There's Neoptolemus when he'll be gone
to devastate the city and its wall.
Undying Thetis grieves for such a son
who'll never get to hold his little boy.
She's done with mortals' trifles "lost" or "won"
that grandson joins him on the pyre of Troy.
He'll die without a grey hair, or a scar
eclipsing--briefly--every other star.
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