(ON A COPY OF THE ILIAD FOUND WITH THE MUMMY OF A YOUNG GIRL) LO! an old song, yellow with centuries! She, she who with her young dust kept it sweet; She, in some green court on a carved seat, Read it at dusk fair-paged upon her knees; And, looking up, saw there, beyond the trees, Tall Helen through the darkling shadows fleet; And heard, out in the fading river-street, The roar of battle like the roar of seas. Love, weeping, laid this song when she was dead In that sealed chamber, strange with nard and musk. Outliving Egypt, see it here at last. We touch its leaves: back rush the seasons sped; For us, as once for her, in that old dusk, Troy trembles like a reed before the blast! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FORGETFULNESS by HAROLD HART CRANE THE GARDEN SEAT by THOMAS HARDY TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE THIRD DAY: AZRAEL by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW ANTONY AND [OR, TO] CLEOPATRA by WILLIAM HAINES LYTLE TO A CONTEMPORARY BUNKSHOOTER by CARL SANDBURG IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 22 by ALFRED TENNYSON |