And ever, through thy shades,

A swell of deep Eolian sound went by,
From fountain-voices in their secret glades,
And low reed-whispers, making sweet reply
To summer's breezy sigh!

And young leaves trembling to the wind's light breath,
Which ne'er had touch'd them with a hue of death!

And the transparent sky

Rung as a dome, all thrilling to the strain

Of harps that, 'midst the woods, made harmony
Solemn and sweet; yet troubling not the brain
With dreams and yearnings vain,

And dim remembrances, that still draw birth
From the bewildering music of the earth.

And who, with silent tread,

Mov'd o'er the plains of waving Asphodel?
Who, of the hosts, the night-o'erpeopling dead,

Amidst the shadowy Amaranth-bowers might dwell,
And listen to the swell

Of those majestic hymn-notes, and inhale

The spirit wandering in th' immortal gale ?

They of the sword, whose praise,

With the bright wine at nations' feasts, went round!
They of the lyre, whose unforgotten lays

On the morn's wing had sent their mighty sound,
And in all regions found

Their echoes 'midst the mountains!-and become
In man's deep heart, as voices of his home!

They of the daring thought!

Daring and powerful, yet to dust allied;

Whose flight through stars, and seas, and depths had sought The soul's far birth-place-but without a guide!

Sages and seers, who died,

And left the world their high mysterious dreams,
Born 'midst the olive-woods, by Grecian streams.

But they, of whose abode

'Midst her green valleys earth retain'd no trace, Save a flower springing from their burial-sod,

A shade of sadness on some kindred face,

A void and silent place

In some sweet home ;-thou hadst no wreaths for these, Thou sunny land! with all thy deathless trees!

The peasant, at his door

Might sink to die, when vintage-feasts were spread, And songs on every wind!-From thy bright shore No lovelier vision floated round his head,

Thou wert for nobler dead!

He heard the bounding steps which round him fell, And sigh'd to bid the festal sun farewell!

The slave, whose very tears

Were a forbidden luxury, and whose breast
Shut up the woes and burning thoughts of years,
As in the ashes of an urn compress'd;

-He might not be thy guest!

No gentle breathings from thy distant sky
Came o'er his path, and whisper'd “ Liberty !”

Calm, on its leaf-strewn bier,

Unlike a gift of nature to decay,

Too rose-like still, too beautiful, too dear,
The child at rest before its mother lay;

E'en so to pass away,

With its bright smile!-Elysium! what wert thou,

To her, who wept o'er that young slumberer's brow?

Thou hadst no home, green land!

For the fair creature from her bosom gone,

With life's first flowers just opening in her hand,
And all the lovely thoughts and dreams unknown,
Which in its clear eye shone

Like the spring's wakening!-But that light was past—
-Where went the dew-drop, swept before the blast?

Not where thy soft winds play'd,

Not where thy waters lay in glassy sleep!-
Fade, with thy bowers, thou land of visions, fade !
From thee no voice came o'er the gloomy deep,
And bade man cease to weep!

Fade, with the amaranth-plain, the myrtle-grove,
Which could not yield one hope to sorrowing love!

For the most loved are they,

Of whom Fame speaks not with her clarion-voice
In regal halls!-the shades o'erhang their way,
The vale, with its deep fountains, is their choice,
And gentle hearts rejoice

Around their steps!-till silently they die,

As a stream shrinks from summer's burning eye.

And the world knows not then,

Not then, nor ever, what pure thoughts are fled!
Yet these are they, that on the souls of men

Come back, when night her folding veil hath spread,
The long-remember'd dead!

But not with thee might aught save glory dwell

-Fade, fade away, thou shore of Asphodel!