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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


APHRODITE'S TEMPLE by GEORGE SANTAYANA

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE MURMURED AWE
Last Line: WHOM I CALLED FATHER ONCE.
Subject(s): APHRODITE; TEMPLES;

The murmured awe
Of thousands filled the temple's pillared gloom;
They gazed upon my changeless smile and saw
My flowering bosom like the lotus-bloom
Pale in the myriad lamps' uncertain sheen.
I breathed upon them and they bowed the head;
I fetched my breath, and their rapt spirit's balm
I drank like wind. They loved and they are dead,
But I remember them. So farewell King,
Whom I called Father once.



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