DONDE ESTAN? (A FRAGMENT) by JAMES ELROY FLECKER

I

We are they who dream no dreams,
Singers of arising day
Who undaunted,
Where the sword of reason gleams,
Follow hard, to hew away
The woods enchanted.
Through each dark and rustling byway
Evil things have fled before us:
We pursue them:
We have carved an open highway,
We have sung of Truth in chorus
As we slew them.

II

Though the shapes had something human,
Though sweet lips and eyes entreated
By their beauty:
Though processions of tall women
Looked and lured, we undefeated
Did our duty.
Though fair children, running after,
Held out hands of supplication,
Smiled and cried,
Yet we watched with bitter laughter
When delusion's fair creation
Smitten, died.

III

Where are they, the half-deceivers
Statue-forms and young men's fancies,
Gods of Greece?
Dryads, where your groves and rivers,
Where thy chaste and woodland dances,
Artemis?
Shadows, shadows! None will follow
Cyprian maids; or voices sighing
From the sea;
Veiled is Iris, dark Apollo,
Dead the Queen who called the dying
Hecate.

* * *

V

Where are they who crushed the East
With ribaldry and song, and where
The lewd viziers?
Where the girls who crowned the feast
For the Lords who had no care
Of blood or tears?
Where the millions who, forgotten,
Fought for Selim's sultanate
And filled Gehenna?
Where the sword? -- but dim and rotten
Lies the sword that cleft the gate
Of proud Vienna.

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