Classic Poem

VI.

Young is she, scarcely passed from childhood's years,
With grave soft face, where thoughts and smiles may play,
And unalarmed by guilty aims or fears,
Serene as meadow-flowers may meet the day.

VII.

No guilty pang she knows, though many a dread
Hangs threatening o'er her in the conscious air,
And 'mid the beams from that bright casement shed,
A twinkling crown foreshows a near despair.

VIII.

But Jane regards not auguries of ill,
Nor ev'n that sovran vision draws her eyes,
Which bent in contemplation smooth and still
Drink dews that make the heart devoutly wise.

IX.

She reads in Plato's page, and sphered with him
Sees dark Hymettus, sees Ilissus flow;
Through many an age's shadow broad and dim,
Lives back to where Athena's olives grow.

X.

With marble stems whose summits leaves enwreathe,
The light and sculptured colonnade is there;
In silent forms the gods and heroes breathe,
And awe with tranquil eyes the empurpled air.