I. THE dusky sky fades into blue, And bluer waters bind us; The stars are glimmering faint and few, The night is left behind us! Turn not where sinks the sullen dark Before the signs of warning, But crowd the canvas on our bark And sail to meet the morning. Rejoice! rejoice! the hues that fill The orient, flush and lighten; And over the blue Ionian hill The Dawn begins to brighten! II. We leave the Night, that weighed so long Upon the soul's endeavor, For Morning, on these hills of Song, Has made her home forever. Hark to the sound of trump and lyre, In the olive-groves before us, And the rhythmic beat, the pulse of fire Throbs in the full-voice chorus! More than Memnonian grandeur speaks In the triumph of the paean, And all the glory of the Greeks Breathes o'er the old AEgean. III. Here shall the ancient Dawn return, That lit the earliest poet, Whose very ashes in his urn Would radiate glory through it, -- The dawn of Life, when Life was Song, And Song the life of Nature, And the Singer stood amid the throng, -- A God in every feature! When Love was free, and free as air The utterance of Passion, And the heart in every fold lay bare, Nor shamed its true expression. IV. Then perfect limb and perfect face Surpassed our best ideal; Unconscious Nature's law was grace, -- The Beautiful was real. For men acknowledged true desires, And light as garlands wore them; They were begot by vigorous sires, And noble mothers bore them. Oh, when the shapes of Art they planned Were living forms of passion, Impulse and Deed went hand in hand, And Life was more than Fashion! V. The seeds of Song they scattered first Flower in all later pages; Their forms have woke the Artist's thirst Through the succeeding ages: But I will seek the fountain-head Whence flowed their inspiration, And lead the unshackled life they led, Accordant with Creation. The World's false life, that follows still, Has ceased its chain to tighten, And over the blue Ionian hill I see the sunrise brighten! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON A PIECE OF TAPESTRY by GEORGE SANTAYANA OUR FIFTY-FIFTH; 1843-1897 by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER SONG TO ONE WHO, WHEN I PRAIS'D MY MISTRESS' BEAUTY, SAID I WAS BLIND by THOMAS CAREW THE WHITE NORTH by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE LINES; WRITTEN AFTER THE PROMISE OF A REWARD by LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON ALMOND PETALS by MARION E. THORPE DILLER INSPIRATION by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR |