Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ODE TO APHRODITE, by MARGARET SACKVILLE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODE TO APHRODITE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not from calm waters only has she sprung
Last Line: The flaming storm may light her festival.
Subject(s): Aphrodite; Mythology - Classical


NOT from calm waters only has she sprung,
Not only from the swing of somnolent tides,
But from grey depths by swart rocks overhung,
And icy caverns where the whirlwind hides;
Her hair which keeps the earliest lights of morn—
All radiant with white stars of shimmering foam,—
Her feet whose touch make green the earth, her hands
Laden with beauty, these the winds have torn,
For she has been where angry tempests roam
Along the borders of distracted lands.

And she is of the sea yet not alone
Born of its sleep, and calm and amorous haze,
But of fierce waves whose wrath has overthrown
Vessels which wander down remote sea ways—
But of the midnight's starless solitude
On desolate wastes where never ship has strayed
And only weeds in forlorn tangles drift,
For she has shared in the sea's every mood,
And of its light and darkness is she made,
And to her lovers brings the sea for gift.

Wherefore the shrine that is for her most meet,
Is one bright-gleaming on some dangerous shore
Where the slow dancers on gold-sandalled feet
May feel the sea wind sweep across the floor.
Where every cloud of the storm-laden skies
Shall cast its shadow, and the sullen rain
Enter at will, and the soft dove's low call
Be mingled with the sea-gulls' mournful cries—
Where, when the flickering altar fires are vain,
The flaming storm may light her festival.





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