Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO ATHENS, by PINDAR


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TO ATHENS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Shed o'er our choir, olympian dominations
Last Line: Echoes and circlet-crowned semele's glory.
Subject(s): Athens, Greece


SHED o'er our choir, Olympian dominations,
The glory of your grace,
O ye who hallow with your visitations
The curious-carven place,
The heart of Athens, steaming with oblations,
Wide-thronged with many a face.
Come, take your due of garlands violet-woven,
Of songs that burst forth when the buds are cloven.

Look on me -- linked with music's heaven-born glamour
Again have I drawn nigh
The Ivy-wreathed, on earth named Lord of Clamour,
Of the soul-thrilling cry.
We hymn the babe that of the maid Kadmeian
Sprang to the sire throned in the empyrean.

By surest tokens is he manifested: --
What time the bridal bowers
Of Earth and Sun are by their crimson-vested
Warders flung wide, the Hours.
Then Spring, led on by flowers nectar-breathing,
O'er Earth the deathless flings
Violet and rose their love-locks interwreathing:
The voice of song outrings
An echo to the flutes; the dance his story
Echoes and circlet-crowned Semele's glory.





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