DEAR GIRL OF MYTILENE Thy dark locks loosely flowing, Thy full, round, jet eye sparkling With soul-subduing glances, Thy brown cheek flushed and glowing, Thy lips, like opening rose buds Their earliest balm exhaling, Thy slender hands of coral, Whose light and fairy fingers, The cittern sweetly tuning, Awake the song of Sappho, And echo "lovely Phaon! Adored, but cruel Phaon!" Dear girl of Mytilene -- Beneath the bending vine-bower, That hangs its loaded clusters Full-swoln with purple nectar, And o'er the vaulted trellis Its tendrils, wildly ramping, With broad, green leaves inwoven, Shut out the star and moonlight -- Dear girl of Mytilene -- As in that secret bower Thy love-lorn song is flowing, The shepherd, on the moss bank, All silvered o'er with moonlight, Beside a dimpling fountain, Shall play upon his tabret, Responsive to thy echoes, The dying song of Sappho To loved, but cruel Phaon. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 20 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING IN THE HOLY NATIVITY [OF OUR LORD GOD]; AS SUNG BY SHEPHERDS by RICHARD CRASHAW ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF AN UNFORTUNATE LADY by ALEXANDER POPE THE FIRST-FOOT by ALEXANDER ANDERSON IN VINCULIS; SONNETS WRITTEN IN AN IRISH PRISON: CONDEMNED by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT EXTRACTS FROM VERSES WRITTEN FOR THE NEW YEAR, 1823 by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |