The Collected Works of William Morris :: :: University of Virginia Library

'Twixt Neptune's temple and the eastern sea,
She looks across the waves unceasingly;
And as their ridges draw on towards the land,
The winds tell stories of the kingly band.
There, with the fixed and unused oars spread out,
She lies amidst the ghosts of song and shout
And merry laughter, that were wont to fill
Her well-built hollow, slowly dying still,
Like all that glorious company of kings
Who in her did such well-remembered things.

But as the day comes round when o'er the seas
She darted 'twixt the blue Symplegades,
And when again she rushed across the bar,
With King Æetes following her afar,
And when at length the heroes laid adown
The well-worn oars at old King Æson's town:
When, year by year, these glorious days come round,
Bright with gay garments is that spot of ground,
And the grey rocks that o'ertop Cenchreæ
Send echoes of sweet singing o'er the sea.

For then the keel the maidens go about
Singing the songs of Orpheus, and the shout
Of rough-voiced sea-folk endeth every song;
And then from stem to stern they hang along
Garlands of flowers, and all the oars they twine
With garlands too, and cups of royal wine
Cast o'er her bows; and at the stern a maid
Handles the tiller, she being all arrayed
In Juno's fashion; while anigh the stem
Stands one with wings and many-coloured hem
About her raiment, like the messenger
Who bears the high Gods' dreadful words with her,
And through the sea of old that stem did lead.