THERE is a fold of lion-coloured earth, With stony feet in the Ægean blue, Whereon of old dwelt loneliness and dearth Sun-scorched and desolate; and when there flew The winds of winter in those dreary aisles Of crag and cliff, a whirling snow-wreath bound The foreheads of the mountains, and their miles Of frowning precipice and scarp were wound With stilly white, that peered through brooding mist profound. But now the myrtle and the rosemary, The mastic and the rue, the scented thyme With fragrant fingers gladdening the grey, Shall kindle on a desert grown sublime. Henceforth that haggard land doth guard and hold The treasure of a sovereign nation's womb— Her fame, her worth, her pride, her purest gold. Oh, call ye not the sleeping place a tomb That lifts to heaven's light such everlasting bloom. They stretch, now high, now low, the little scars Upon the rugged pelt of herb and stone; Above them sparkle bells and buds and stars Young Spring hath from her emerald kirtle thrown. Asphodel, crocus and anemone With silver, azure, crimson once again Ray all that earth, and from the murmuring sea Come winds to flash the leaves on shore and plain Where evermore our dead—our radiant dead shall reign. Imperishable as the mountain height That marks their place afar, their numbers shine, Who, with the first-fruits of a joyful might, To human liberty another shrine Here sanctified; nor vainly have they sped That made this desert dearer far than home, And left one sanctuary more to tread For England, whose memorial pathways roam Beside her hero sons, beneath the field and foam. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JACK CREAMER [OCTOBER 25, 1812] by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE A PARTING SONG by WILLIAM AITKEN THE SHAVEN BEAUTY by YUSUF IBN HARUN AL-RAMADI AFTER OPERATION by JULIET BRANHAM CIPHERS by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN OCTOBER TWILIGHT by VINCENT GODFREY BURNS |