What phantom is this that appears <br />Through the purple mist of the years, <br />Itself but a mist like these? <br />A woman of cloud and of fire; <br />It is she; it is Helen of Tyre, <br />The town in the midst of the seas. <br /> <br />O Tyre! in thy crowded streets <br />The phantom appears and retreats, <br />And the Israelites that sell <br />Thy lilies and lions of brass, <br />Look up as they see her pass, <br />And murmur "Jezebel!" <br /> <br />Then another phantom is seen <br />At her side, in a gray gabardine, <br />With beard that floats to his waist; <br />It is Simon Magus, the Seer; <br />He speaks, and she pauses to hear <br />The words he utters in haste. <br /> <br />He says: "From this evil fame, <br />From this life of sorrow and shame, <br />I will lift thee and make thee mine; <br />Thou hast been Queen Candace, <br />And Helen of Troy, and shalt be <br />The Intelligence Divine!" <br /> <br />Oh, sweet as the breath of morn, <br />To the fallen and forlorn <br />Are whispered words of praise; <br />For the famished heart believes <br />The falsehood that tempts and deceives, <br />And the promise that betrays. <br /> <br />So she follows from land to land <br />The wizard's beckoning hand, <br />As a leaf is blown by the gust, <br />Till she vanishes into night. <br />O reader, stoop down and write <br />With thy finger in the dust. <br /> <br />O town in the midst of the seas, <br />With thy rafts of cedar trees, <br />Thy merchandise and thy ships, <br />Thou, too, art become as naught, <br />A phantom, a shadow, a thought, <br />A name upon men's lips.<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/helen-of-tyre/
