Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GREECE by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE

First Line: YON CHILDREN CHASING THE WILD BEES

Yon children chasing the wild bees
Have lips as full and fair
As Plato had, or Sophocles,
When bees sought honey there.
But song of bard or sage's lore
Those fields ennoble now no more:
It is not Greece,-it must not be,-
And yet, look up,-the land is free!
I gazed round Marathon. The plain
In peaceful sunshine slept;
Eternal Sabbath there her reign
Inviolably kept:
"Is this the battle-field?" I cried.
An eagle from on high replied
With shade far cast and clangor shrill
"Yes, yes,-'t is Hellas, Hellas still!"




Home: PoetryExplorer.net