South! . . . These stars I know! . . . And south is Greece! O Death, one gentleness I pray -- Let me find rest on that divine, sweet shore, And have for spirit-home some strip of Hellas! Some mountain cove in hearing of the sea, Some fabled fold, perhaps, of Helicon, Trod once by silver feet, now silvery With heliotrope and sprinkled sheep, There bide in quiet death's prepared event. . . . After the snows, when April nights grow warm And lilies of the moon blanch field and crag, When tenderly the wind blows down from Thessaly, And dews are deep, and down the mountains glide On feather feet the drifting dreams Whose land is not the land of sleep -- Ah, then, perhaps, the spirit that incited so My heart to song in earthlier days, Balked of the dear delight of utterance, Muted beyond all hope of speech, May tinge with sharper longing the lament Of that sole bird that sings unto his heart, Or deeplier dye the coral-mouthed blooms That hide but do not hush the river's brink. . . . | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COURAGE THAT OVERCOMES by MARGARETE ROSE AKIN THE HEART-CRY by FRANCIS WILLIAM BOURDILLON A VIGNETTE by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES DICTATOR by KATHARINE BROWN BURT SHAKESPEARE TO HIS MIRROR by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |