Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ACADEME, by HENRY ALFORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ACADEME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Before the day the gleaming dawn doth flee
Last Line: Hath risen the noon, and thou wert in thy prime.
Subject(s): Athens, Greece


BEFORE the day the gleaming dawn doth flee: --
All yesternight I had a dreary dream;
Methought I walk'd in desert Academe
Among fallen pillars -- and there came to me,
All in a dim half-twilight silently,
A very sad old man -- his eyes were red
With over-weeping -- and he cried and said
"The light hath risen but shineth not on me."
Beautiful Athens, all thy loveliness
Is like the scarce remember'd burst of spring
When now the summer in her party dress
Hath clothed the woods, and fill'd each living thing
With ripest joy -- because upon our time
Hath risen the noon, and thou wert in thy prime.





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