Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/350

POEMS OF NATURE Of Kolonos, where in clusters

Blooms narcissus—where unfold

Ivied trees their leafy lustres

And the crocus spreads its gold;

Where the nightingales keep singing

And the streamlets never cease,

To the son of Laius bringing

Rest at last, forgiveness, peace.

Drops the book—but from its prison

Tell me now what antique spell,

Through the unclaspt cover risen,

Moves the waves I know so well;

Bids me find in them hereafter,

Dimpled to their utmost zone

With the old innumerous laughter,

An Ægean of my own?

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.

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