Classic Poem

Here where the shore so faintly shows
Hard on the left, Cythera glows,
As once, — when Aphrodite rose, —
Celestial red, love's proper hue.
And there across the sundering main,
Half seen beneath that inky stain,
The nurse of storm-wind and of rain,
Cape Malea juts athwart the blue.

Then turns the coast; but yonder land
That lies beyond my out-stretched hand
Is Crete's long, jagged, saffron band;
While here the broad Myrtoän sea.
Good sooth! it needs no Attalus
To tempt my heart to voyage thus.
O waves, song-kissed and glorious,
Where is the Cyprian barque for me?

Close on the sunrise side, see! these
Pale emeralds are the Cyclades,
Gemming the amethystine seas, —
The siren seas where shipwreck lies.
" Lily on lily . " Was it so
The poet sang them? Would he know
These soft-green flecks, these firths that glow
Bright azure to our eager eyes?

Still north our glances yearn; and this
Rough wedge of gold is Argolis;
And there wave-girdled Salamis,
Descried beyond Aegina Isle.
Yonder where eastward shadows creep
I know how Sunium's marbled steep
With thee and me its tryst will keep;
And there, O Love, behold the smile ...

Alas! I fold the faded chart.
All was a dream, — a dream, O heart!
A dream that makes the eyelids smart
While on the dingy tome I pore.
Outside my attic-study pane
Mumbles the February rain;
I turn the page and sigh again:
Youth! Love! And Greece! Ah me! no more.