Surprise Me!

Charles Kingsley - Sappho

2014-11-10 2 Dailymotion

She lay among the myrtles on the cliff; <br />Above her glared the noon; beneath, the sea. <br />Upon the white horizon Atho's peak <br />Weltered in burning haze; all airs were dead; <br />The cicale slept among the tamarisk's hair; <br />The birds sat dumb and drooping. Far below <br />The lazy sea-weed glistened in the sun; <br />The lazy sea-fowl dried their steaming wings; <br />The lazy swell crept whispering up the ledge, <br />And sank again. Great Pan was laid to rest; <br />And Mother Earth watched by him as he slept, <br />And hushed her myriad children for a while. <br />She lay among the myrtles on the cliff; <br />And sighed for sleep, for sleep that would not hear, <br />But left her tossing still; for night and day <br />A mighty hunger yearned within her heart, <br />Till all her veins ran fever; and her cheek, <br />Her long thin hands, and ivory-channelled feet, <br />Were wasted with the wasting of her soul. <br />Then peevishly she flung her on her face, <br />And hid her eyeballs from the blinding glare, <br />And fingered at the grass, and tried to cool <br />Her crisp hot lips against the crisp hot sward: <br />And then she raised her head, and upward cast <br />Wild looks from homeless eyes, whose liquid light <br />Gleamed out between deep folds of blue-black hair, <br />As gleam twin lakes between the purple peaks <br />Of deep Parnassus, at the mournful moon. <br />Beside her lay her lyre. She snatched the shell, <br />And waked wild music from its silver strings; <br />Then tossed it sadly by.-'Ah, hush!' she cries; <br />'Dead offspring of the tortoise and the mine! <br />Why mock my discords with thine harmonies? <br />Although a thrice-Olympian lot be thine, <br />Only to echo back in every tone <br />The moods of nobler natures than thine own.' <br /> <br /> <br />Eversley, 1847 <br /> <br />From Yeast.<br /><br />Charles Kingsley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sappho-4/

Buy Now on CodeCanyon