I HAVE (in bronze) a tiny Adventuress of Greece, A little laughing Phryne, Upon my mantelpiece, And when I see her smiling Imagination strays Once more in brave, beguiling, Divine Athenian days! Cool marble courts are ringing As merry voices call, Where girls are garland-stringing For Springtime's festival; In lanes of linkéd lightness The roses rope, and flow Blood-red upon the whiteness Of chiselled Parian snow! I have a pot of pewter, And when the firelight gleams I too will turn transmuter Of commonplace to dreams. Then, though the year's at ember Once more high June doth reign And I in dreams remember,— And win the thing again! On turf of headland thymy, Where brine-washed breezes strive, I lay the subtle stymie, I drive the spanking drive; I see the grey tides sleeping, I watch the grey gulls wheel, Till through the dusk come creeping The lights of distant Deal! O pewter and O Phryne, Since both of you may bring Your visions blue and briny Or garlanded of Spring: I welcome you together Upon my mantelpiece, And love both magics, whether Of England or of Greece! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SHEPHERDESS by ALICE MEYNELL DOWN BY THE SALLEY GARDENS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS WHO GOES THERE? by GRACE DUFFIE BOYLAN LOVE, NOT DUTY by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH A BALLAD OF THE QUEEN'S MAJESTY by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON |