AT Athens dwells the woman who hath bound My spirit with a spell, and made me hers Long as the warm blood pulses through my veins. Where stands the fane of Theseus, there she dwells, Within the shadow of Minerva's shrine. The cavern dungeon where old Socrates The hemlock drank; the azure-vaulted Pnyx Where great Demosthenes the state controlled With matchless eloquence, are near the spot Wherein she dwells, while circling round her rise Her native mountains, smit with roseate gleams. Between them, gray old olive groves and wealth Of crimson flowers upon the storied plain, Whose rocky bourne is silvered by the foam Of the sapphire sea, lit by the islemen's sails. And there she dwells of whom I speak, amid The glories of her native land, how fair. While seasons change, her beauty changes not; The fleeting years go on, but still abides Her power to charm and steal the hearts of men. Two thousand years have June's soft zephyrs breathed The rose's perfume on that noble brow, Two thousand years Hymettus' bees have hummed To her the blooming of the almond buds, And still her features wear exquisite grace, A tenderness ineffable, a smile So beautiful, that from the first my soul Was strangely moved, and to myself I thought, O that those eyes could but return my gaze, That round my neck those perfect arms would twine. That I might gather kisses from those lips, And hear her warble love's delicious strains. And thus I stood and mused upon her face, Stirred by a futile longing, while she wove The subtle thrall that made me hers forever. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BURIAL by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY DEEDS OF VALOR AT SANTIAGO by CLINTON SCOLLARD THE DRUM: THE NARRATIVE OF THE DEMON OF TEDWORTH by EDITH SITWELL TO SHELLEY by JOHN BANISTER TABB IDYLLS OF THE KING: MERLIN AND VIVIEN by ALFRED TENNYSON ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS: PART 3: 34. MUTABILITY by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH FORMALITY AND THE SOUL: 2. JAMES MACNEIL WHISTLER by KARL W. BIGELOW |