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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SAPPHO AND PHAON: 23. SAPPHO'S CONJECTURES by MARY DARBY ROBINSON

First Line: TO ETNA'S SCORCHING SANDS MY PHAON FLIES!
Last Line: OR, IN ETERNAL SLUMBERS BID THEM REST.

To Etna's scorching sands my Phaon flies!
False youth! can other charms attractive prove?
Say, can Sicilian loves thy passions move,
Play round thy heart, and fix thy fickle eyes,
While in despair the Lesbian Sappho dies?
Has Spring for thee a crown of poppies wove,
Or dost thou languish in the Idalian grove,
Whose altar kindles, fanned by Lover's sighs?
Ah! think, that while on Etna's shores you stray,
A fire, more fierce than Etna's, fills my breast;
Nor deck Sicilian nymphs with garlands gay,
While Sappho's brows with cypress wreaths are dressed;
Let one kind word my weary woes repay,
Or, in eternal slumbers bid them rest.



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