Oedipus Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

Oedipus was king of Thebis;
Jacarta was wife of Oedipus.

Oedipus was sincere in his duty.
‘While you suffer, none suffers more than I’,
With this, he resolved to save the city
By finding out the killer of King Lains.

Teiresias, a blind prophet, accused him,
‘You are the cursed polluter of this land.’
‘Terrible things indeed has the prophet spoken.
The killer of King Lains shall be banished’

The tension mounted, the truth revealed.
He was the son of King Lains he killed.
He married the king’s wife, Jacasta,
Without knowing that she was his mother.

Crippled with ignominy for the killing,
Oedipus preferred death but banished himself
As the banishment was the cure of the city.

Jacaste loved Oedipus and believed in chance.
‘Chance rules our life and the future is all unknown.
Best live as best we may, day to day’
She could not allow him to be doomed.

Oedipus must not know about his origin,
Which would reveal her relation to him.
She met her death, a proper end of incest.
18.02.2008