Oedipus Rex

“I, Queen Jocasta, take thee, King Oedipus, 

to be my wedded husband,”Said she,

They took their vows and locked their hands,

In holy matrimony.

the Delphic god himself foretold,

that the Queen shall birth a son,

cursed who is to wed his womb,

and shed his sire’s blood.

Ever since Laius had vowed,

To prove this all but false,

He chained his son and cast him off,

stranded on a mountain top.

the forsaken Oedipus found himself,

In the house of Polybus, 

and raised in ignorance 

thought himself their true born son.

He learnt of the prophecy,

and heedless of his true parentage,

off he went from Corinth to Thebes
to protect Polybus and his Queen.

en route he killed a man,

’Twas his sire King Laius,

At Thebes he wedded a woman,

“Twas his mother Queen Jocasta.

Alas! Oedipus had just fulfilled,

The prophecy he sought to thwart,

For a man can not will what he wills only do what he wills,
And Oedipus was a man after all.