 | Gathered poems of Ernest Myers |  |
53
ITHOME
It is no God that haunts the cloven crestOf this Messenian mountain of old fame,
But thou, the peer of Gods, immortal name,
Epameinondas, whom these heights attest
Saviour and Father of a race opprest.
Even now the diadem of thy towered wall
Not quite has crumbled, and shall well recall
That day of pride, when, at the imperial hest
Of thy strong stamp and splendour of thy spears,
Messenia stirred, and sprang to reassume
Her ancient heritage of the Dorian peers,
Grim Sparta's prey; and after dolorous gloom
Of that long death through thrice a hundred years
Arose in scorn of tyrants from the tomb.
| Gathered poems of Ernest Myers | |