Page:The Poems of Oscar Wilde.pdf/287



Song sung by captive women of Troy on the sea beach at Aulia, while the Achæans were there storm-bound through the wrath of dishonoured Achilles, and waiting for a fair wind to bring them home.

wind blowing from the sea!

Who through the dark and mist dost guide

The ships that on the billows ride,

Unto what land, ah, misery!

Shall I be borne, across what stormy wave,

Or to whose house a purchased slave?

O sea-wind blowing fair and fast

Is it unto the Dorian strand,

Or to those far and fable shores,

Where great Apidanus outpours

His streams upon the fertile land,

Or shall I tread the Phthian sand,

Borne by the swift breath of the blast?

273