OCR Text |
Show A SONG OF THE AEGEAN. By WILLIAM VINCENT BYARS. There blooms a bright Aegean isle Set liko a jewel in blue seas Whoso calm, unfettered waters smile In ripples, as the wooing breeze Blows shoreward till the flowerjng trees Feel the deep, musical emotion That sways the soul through rhyme's degrees, Till soul and sky and smiling ocean Are tuned in one soft Sapphic motion. From cark of life, from cares that cumber Would you escape? Then come with me, And while those deep, blue waters slumber, We'll watch the soft Aegean sea, Beneath a flowering almond tree, We'll sit an hour when day has broken For one long hour, most blest we'll be, And this shall be that blessing's token The hour will pass with no word spoken. So shall wo know the voiceless pleasure, Too deep for words, which lulls and sways The awakening waves to that soft measure Whose lilt is lost in these late days; The sea will give the sun its praise With worship of swift, rhyming tune That ebbs and flows through peaceful bays Whose waters lisp the magic rune They learned in Greek from Sappho's June. We'll dare that ancient, potent spell For could we learn its tune too well, For but a single, morning hour, In some vine-clad Aegean bower, Its sweetness has so soft a power That we would forfeit all the dower Of these new years, to live always Watching blue seas the sunshine -sways To subtle tune with Sappho's lays. For but one hour, we'll dare the pleasure Of that strong spell, though we consume Our souls to ashes with the treasure Of golden Are in that sweet measure The rhyme of almond trees in bloom, The Sapphic lilt, the Adonian fall, They call us now they call and call, Blent with strong sweetness of perfume Whose magic scents wrought Sappho's doom. From "Songs of the Hereafter." |