Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PARTHENON, by HERMAN MELVILLE



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PARTHENON, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Estranged in site, / aerial gleaming, warmly white
Last Line: "hist! -- art's meridian, pericles!"
Subject(s): Parthenon


I

SEEN ALOFT FROM AFAR

Estranged in site,
Aerial gleaming, warmly white,
You look a suncloud motionless
In noon of day divine;
Your beauty charmed enhancement takes
In Art's long after-shine.

II

NEARER VIEWED

Like Lais, fairest of her kind,
In subtlety your form's defined --
The cornice curved, each shaft inclined,
While yet, to eyes that do but revel
And take the sweeping view,
Erect this seems, and that a level,
To line and plummet true.

Spinoza gazes; and in mind
Dreams that one architect designed
Lais -- and you!

III

THE FRIEZE

What happy musings genial went
With airiest touch the chisel lent
To frisk and curvet light
Of horses gay -- their riders grave --
Contrasting so in action brave
With virgins meekly bright,
Clear filing on in even tone
With pitcher each, one after one
Like water-fowl in flight.

IV

THE LAST TILE

When the last marble tile was laid
The winds died down on all the seas;
Hushed were the birds, and swooned the glade;
Ictinus sat; Aspasia said
"Hist! -- Art's meridian, Pericles!"





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net