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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CRESSIDA by CHARLES WILLIAMS

First Line: FIRE CATCHES AGAMEMNON'S CRIMSON SAIL
Last Line: FLOWED THE DELICIOUS FUTURE OF HIS DREAM.
Subject(s): DREAMS; LOVE; NIGHTMARES;

FIRE catches Agamemnon's crimson sail
And hostile arms invade the burning fleet
Where, in the last disorder of retreat,
The shattered Grecian host without avail
Is knotted desperately; women bewail
Already their near capture, to complete
Whose terror one of them runs forth to meet
Love's freedom, love's imprisonment, to hail
With outflung arms and joyous eyes agleam
Him from whose side she parted so long since—
Nigh three days—who now o'er great captains dead,
Achilles' self, Ajax, or Diomed,
Victorious moves. ...
So round the sleeping prince
Flowed the delicious future of his dream.



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