Page:The poems of Emma Lazarus volume 1.djvu/228

214 Thanks for the silent greeting ! I shall prize, Beyond June s rose, the scentless flower of Rome. All the Campagna spreads before my sight, The mouldering wall, the Caesars tombs unwreathed, Rome and the Tiber, and the yellow light, Wherein the honey-colored blossom breathed. But most I thank it egoists that we be For proving then and there you thought of me.

THERE was a man who watched the river flow Past the huge town, one gray November day. Round him in narrow high-piled streets at play The boys made merry as they saw him go, Murmuring half-loud, with eyes upon the stream, The immortal screed he held within his hand. For he was walking in an April land With Faust and Helen. Shadowy as a dream Was the prose-world, the river and the town. Wild joy possessed him ; through enchanted skies He saw the cranes of Ibycus swoop down. He closed the page, he lifted up his eyes, Lo a black line of birds in wavering thread Bore him the greetings of the deathless dead!