Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/65

A SEA-CHANGE, AT KELP ROCK Even so: the blue Ægean

Through our tendriled arches smiles,

And the distant empyrean

Curves to kiss enchanted isles:

Isles of Shoals, I know—yet fancy

This one day shall have free range,

And yon isles her necromancy

Shall to those of Hellas change.

Look! beyond the lanterned pharos

Girt with reefs that evermore,

Lashed and foaming, cry "Beware us!"

Cloud-white sails draw nigh the shore:

Sails, methinks, of burnished galleys

Wafting dark-browed maids within,

From those island hills and valleys,

Dread Athene's grace to win.

Sandalled, coiffed, and white-robed maidens,

Chanting in their carven boats;

List! and hear anon the cadence

Of their virginal fresh notes.

You shall hear the choric hymnos,

Or some clear prosodion

Known to Delos, Naxos, Lemnos,

Isles beneath the eastern sun.

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