The Poetical Works of John Payne Definitive Edition in Two Volumes |
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ON LECONTE DE LISLE'S PROSE TRANSLATION
OF HOMER. |
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 | The Poetical Works of John Payne |  |
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ON LECONTE DE LISLE'S PROSE TRANSLATION OF HOMER.
THERE is a legend of the northland fells,Fabling that in the middle mountain-caves,
Soundless and dumb, a mighty music waves,
Frozen into silence by eternal spells,
Till some fair hero pierce the mist that dwells
Above the music's mystery-hearted graves.
Then shall the song soar with a noise of glaives
To-smitten and the trumpet's silver swells
Rehearse the glories of the ancient time.
So hast thou, poet from the tropic isles,—
Coming, breast-armoured with the gold sun's smiles,
Into our Northland,—set old Homer free
From all the tangling coil of modern rhyme
And loosed the sheer song on us like a sea.
| The Poetical Works of John Payne | |