Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/229

Rh PART II

"THE WHITE CITY"

(THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION)

I

was; Greece is no more.

Temple and town

Have crumbled down;

Time is the fire that hath consumed them all.

Statue and wall

In ruin strew the universal floor.

II

Greece lives, but Greece no more!

Its ashes breed

The undying seed

Blown westward till, in Rome's imperial towers,

Athens reflowers;

Still westward—lo, a veiled and virgin shore!

III

Say not, "Greece is no more."

Through the clear morn

On light winds borne

Her white-winged soul sinks on the New World's breast.

Ah! happy West—

Greece flowers anew, and all her temples soar!

IV

One bright hour, then no more

Shall to the skies

These columns rise.