Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ATHENS, by WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Desolate athens! Though thy gods are fled Last Line: Age kneels to moralize, and youth to weep! Subject(s): Athens, Greece | ||||||||
DESOLATE Athens! though thy gods are fled, Thy temples silent, and thy glory dead, Though all thou hadst of beautiful and brave Sleep in the tomb, or moulder in the wave, Though power and praise forsake thee, and forget, Desolate Athens, thou art lovely yet! Around thy walls, in every wood and vale, Thine own sweet bird, the lonely nightingale, Still makes her home; and, when the moonlight hour Flings its soft magic over brake and bower, Murmurs her sorrows from her ivy shrine, Or the thick foliage of the deathless vine. Where erst Megaera chose her fearful crown, The bright narcissus hangs his clusters down; And the gay crocus decks with glittering dew The yellow radiance of his golden hue. Still thine own olive haunts its native earth, Green, as when Pallas smiled upon its birth; And still Cephisus pours his sleepless tide, So clear and calm, along the meadow side, That you may gaze long hours upon the stream, And dream at last the poet's witching dream, That the sweet Muses in the neighboring bowers Sweep their wild harps, and wreathe their odorous flowers, And laughing Venus o'er the level plains Waves her light lash and shakes her gilded reins. How terrible is Time! his solemn years, The tombs of all our hopes and all our fears, In silent horror roll! the gorgeous throne, The pillared arch, the monumental stone, Melt in swift ruin; and of mighty climes, Where Fame told tales of virtues and of crimes, Where Wisdom taught, and Valor woke to strife, And Art's creations breathed their mimic life, And the young poet when the stars shone high Drank the deep rapture of the quiet sky, Naught now remains but Nature's placid scene, Heaven's deathless blue and earth's eternal green, The showers that fall on palaces and graves, The suns that shine for freemen and for slaves: Science may sleep in ruin, man in shame, But Nature lives, still lovely, still the same! The rock, the river, -- these have no decay! The city and its masters, -- where are they? Go forth, and wander through the cold remains Of fallen statues and of tottering fanes, Seek the loved haunts of poet and of sage, The gay palaestra and the gaudy stage! What signs are there? a solitary stone, A shattered capital with grass o'ergrown, A mouldering frieze, half hid in ancient dust, A thistle springing o'er a nameless bust; Yet this was Athens! still a holy spell Breathes in the dome, and wanders in the dell, And vanished times and wondrous forms appear, And sudden echoes charm the waking ear: Decay itself is drest in glory's gloom, For every hillock is a hero's tomb, And every breeze to Fancy's slumber brings The mighty rushing of a spirit's wings. O yes! where glory such as thine hath been, Wisdom and Sorrow linger round the scene; And where the hues of faded splendor sleep, Age kneels to moralize, and Youth to weep! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ACHARNIANS: IN PRAISE OF THE POET by ARISTOPHANES THE UNKNOWN GOD by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD INCOGNITA IN THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS by SEYMOUR GREEN WHEELER BENJAMIN A VOICE FROM ACADEME by ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN A PRIZE FOR EURIPIDES by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE: CANTO 2 by GEORGE GORDON BYRON LINES [WRITTEN] IN THE TRAVELLER'S BOOK AT ORCHOMENUS by GEORGE GORDON BYRON GOOD-NIGHT TO THE SEASON by WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED SCHOOL AND SCHOOLFELLOWS; FLOREAT ETONA by WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED |
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