POETRY.
THE PLAIN OF COLONUS,
NEAR ATHENS.
Sopa., (ED. Km., 667-692.
STRANGER, here earth's choicest home,
In this land where fair steeds roam, Hast thou found—Colonus bright.
Here the nightingale aye shrills Ceaseless plaint for cureless ills Deep in thickets hid from sight : The wine-dark ivy-leaf she loves, And the divine untrodden groves Within whose shelter'd and windless calm Ten thousand fruits are found.
Ever o'er the holy gronad Great Dionysos leads his revels round, Attendant on the aymphs divine who kept his youth from harm. Here by heaven fresh bedewed, Spring ever day by day renewed, The clustering narcissi fair, That crown'd great goddesses of old, And the crocus' eye of gold.
Still Kephissns' fountains there, With sleepless murmur down the dale, Pour wandering streams that never fail, And quicken with life as they flow along The glad, broad-swelling plain.
Of it are the Muses fain ; And Aphrodite, of the golden rein.
Loves the land that smiles refreshed with waters
Previous page
