Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CALYPSO, by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CALYPSO, by                    
First Line: Wanderer, we must part-so the gods decree
Last Line: Peace upon that home in ithaca!
Subject(s): Adventure & Adventurers; Ithaca, Greece; Mythology


Wanderer, we must part — so the gods decree.
You must go again to Ithaca.
The cold green waves will wash you of the memory of me,
Breaking on the coast of Ithaca.
Built we a house of dreams, beautiful in seeming,
But for those the Thunderer wakes there is no more dreaming.
Go now, spread your sail, turn your prow to sea —
Yonder lies your way to Ithaca.
Theirs is to obey whom the gods command —
Holy is the hearth in Ithaca.
Home and harvest are waiting for your hand —
Fruitful are the fields of Ithaca.
Love the life you chose while it still is yours for living
Lest the jealous gods recall the treasures of their giving.
Passes our dream like our footprints in the sand —
Granite are the cliffs of Ithaca.
I have sent him back at the gods' decree —
I have sent him back to Ithaca.
Never will I walk again beside the twilight sea
On the shore that looks toward Ithaca
Lest the wind should bring to him a breath of days gone by,
Of the beauty and the sorrow of his madness, that was I —
Peace to him and his, O Zeus! I ask no more of thee.
Peace upon that home in Ithaca!





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