(After Valery) <br /> <br /> <br />O Sea! ... 'Tis I, risen from death once more <br />To hear the waves' harmonious roar <br />And see the galleys, sharp, in dawn's great awe <br />Raised from the dark by the rising and gold oar. <br /> <br />My fickle hands sufficed to summon kings <br />Their salt beards amused my fingers, deft and pure. <br />I wept. They sang of triumphs now obscure: <br />And the first abyss flooded the hull as if with falling wings. <br /> <br />I hear the profound horns and trumpets of war <br />Matching the rhythm, swinging of the flying oars: <br />The galleys' chant enchains the foam of sound; <br />And the gods, exalted at the heroic prow, <br />E'en though the spit of spray insults each smiling brow, <br />Beckon to me, with arms indulgent, frozen, sculptured, <br /> and dead long long ago.<br /><br />Delmore Schwartz<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-helen-2/
