(From @3The Powers of the Air@1) OVER Latmos slowed the moon: Endymion on the hill Slept in the warm summer night Without a blanket; still The forest lay beneath, the sea beyond. Out of her halting car with grace Selene leaned to view his face: Her gaze grew fond For her high solitary heart was stirred With wonder at the fashion of his youth. But though her blood sing loud, his has not heard Her flushed austerity confess the truth That she is formed to share that sleep And mingle life with his and give And take joy neither he nor she could keep. Yes, there is time to clear her stately mind, Glance on through future years and find Incompatible his mortal with Her immortalities. And when she gave the kiss She meant that it should change His flesh to marble and that he should lie Shapely and naked under every sky, Whether her car athwart the ether range Or darkness fill with 'wildering snow Or storms bring deluges of rain Or under star or sunlight or grey day A steady windy clearness flow Over the lone top. Yea, He lies as he has lain, Posture unchanged, although the face Have weathered, and grey lichen stain And crust youth's nigh obliterated grace Till strangers might pass by, but shepherds say "Yon stone man sleeps" to turn their eyes his way "Since granfeyther's granfeyther's time and 'fore." Yet spring and summer still Selene as of yore Loiters full many a night upon that hill. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DON JUAN IN HELL by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE REMEMBERING NAT TURNER by STERLING ALLEN BROWN TASTING THE EARTH by JAMES OPPENHEIM EPODE: 2. THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS A CAROL CLOSING SIXTY-NINE by WALT WHITMAN TO THE GIRL WHO HELPED IN THE WAR by JOSEPHINE DODGE DASKAM BACON A SONG OF RICHES by KATHARINE LEE BATES |