ALAS, O Hellas lorn and whist, Statues on culminant crags of long Nude promontories no more list To islands glamorous with song! Unmatchable Acropolis, Thou blossom rooted in mean lanes Of small plain homes, can aught that is Console us for thy shattered fanes? Afar thy hardy frugal youth That was..and dared..the heroic deed.. Thy mind on beauty fed, which truth Could not confuse with her drugg'd mead! Our hearts, like icebergs, drifting south, Would strand where ruins are divine, And, neighbour to a baked rock's drouth, Lose form and substance, dreaming thine, Dead land, still hugged by thy warm sea Nymphless, unfauned, uncentaured! Only thy Sphinx still potently Smiles when we ask her what she said! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PLACES: 4. EVENING (NAHANT) by SARA TEASDALE THE HERETIC: 1. BLASPHEMY by LOUIS UNTERMEYER A MORE ANCIENT MARINER by BLISS CARMAN TO HIS DYING BROTHER, MASTER WILLIAM HERRICK by ROBERT HERRICK SYSTEM by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON HARMOSAN by RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH A GLORY GONE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |