Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SANTORIN (A LEGEND OF THE AEGEAN), by JAMES ELROY FLECKER Poet's Biography First Line: Who are you, sea lady Last Line: And the sea was only sea. Subject(s): Legends, Greek; Santorini Island, Greece | ||||||||
"Who are you, Sea Lady, And where in the seas are we? I have too long been steering By the flashes in your eyes. Why drops the moonlight through my heart, And why so quietly Go the great engines of my boat As if their souls were free?" "Oh ask me not, bold sailor; Is not your ship a magic ship That sails without a sail: Are not these isles the Isles of Greece And dust upon the sea? But answer me three questions And give me answers three. What is your ship?" "A British." "And where may Britain be?" "Oh it lies north, dear lady; It is a small country." "Yet you will know my lover Though you live far away: And you will whisper where he has gone. That lily boy to look upon And whiter than the spray." "How should I know your lover, Lady of the sea?" "Alexander, Alexander, The King of the World was he." "Weep not for him, dear lady, But come aboard my ship. So many years ago he died, He's dead as dead can be." "O base and brutal sailor To lie this lie to me. His mother was the foam-foot Star-sparkling Aphrodite; His father was Adonis Who lives away in Lebanon, In stony Lebanon, where blooms His red anemone. But where is Alexander, The soldier Alexander, My golden love of olden days The King of the world and me?" She sank into the moonlight And the sea was only sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SANTORIN by BARBARA HUGHES FOWLER BOATMEN OF SANTORIN by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH SANTORINI MIST by LIANA SAKELLIOU-SCHULTZ THE OLD SHIPS by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A FRAGMENT by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A MIRACLE OF BETHLEHEM by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A NEW YEAR'S CAROL by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A SACRED DIALOGUE (CHRISTMAS 1912) by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A WESTERN VOYAGE by JAMES ELROY FLECKER |
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