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Poems of Places: Greece and Turkey in Europe.
Poems of Places Greece and Turkey in Europe Author:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Too well, too well was the great stake worth A strife divine for the gods to judge, A crowned god's triumph, a foiled god's grudge, Though the loser be ... more »strong and the victress wise Who played long since for so large a prize, The fruitful, immortal, anointed, adored, Dear city of men without master or lord, Fair fortress and fortress of sons born free, Who stand in her sight and in thine, O sun, Slaves of no man, subjects of none; A wonder enthroned on the hills and sea, A maiden crowned with a fourfold glory That none from the pride of her head may rend, Violet and olive-leaf purple and hoary, Song-wreath and story the fairest of fame, Flowers that the winter can blast not or bend; A light upon earth as the sun's own flame, A name as his name, Athens, a praise without end. Alyernon Charles Swinburne. ATHENS. OLAND of Solon, Plato, and of men Whose glorious like earth ne'er shall see again! Thou art not dead, — thy every plain and hill Sends forth a voice, and teems with spirits still! What though no more they teach, with valor burn? Thy sage and warrior breathe from out the urn, And each lone wreck that moss and ivies bind Points to bright days, and speaks of godlike mind. But rock-crowned Athens calls our thoughts away, There sits she, lovely in her calm decay, The eye of Greece, Fame's daughter sad and lone, The queen of Wisdom on her mouldering throne. How thrill we, entering slow the western gate, To climb you mount where mightiest sages sate ! The rostrum, carved from stone, is seen this hour, Where Eloquence distilled her silver shower. There on Mars Hill stood Paul with flashing eye, Like some bright form just lighted from the sky, Marvelled so blind learned Athens still should be, Admired but mourned her Pagan...« less