Poems, Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams By Walter Savage Landor: Edited with notes by Charles G. Crump |
 | 1. |
 | 2. |
|
|
|
HEGEMON TO PRAXINOE. |
|
|
|
|
 | Poems, Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams |  |
HEGEMON TO PRAXINOE.
Is there any season, O my soul,
When the sources of bitter tears dry up,
And the uprooted flowers take their places again
Along the torrent bed?
When the sources of bitter tears dry up,
And the uprooted flowers take their places again
Along the torrent bed?
Could I wish to live, it would be for that season,
To repose my limbs and press my temples there.
But should I not speedily start away
In the hope to trace and follow thy steps!
To repose my limbs and press my temples there.
But should I not speedily start away
In the hope to trace and follow thy steps!
Thou art gone, thou art gone, Praxinöe!
And hast taken far from me thy lovely youth,
Leaving me naught that was desirable in mine.
Alas! alas! what hast thou left me?
And hast taken far from me thy lovely youth,
Leaving me naught that was desirable in mine.
Alas! alas! what hast thou left me?
The helplessness of childhood, the solitude of age,
The laughter of the happy, the pity of the scorner,
A colourless and broken shadow am I,
Seen glancing in troubled waters.
The laughter of the happy, the pity of the scorner,
A colourless and broken shadow am I,
Seen glancing in troubled waters.
207
My thoughts too are scattered; thou hast cast them off;
They beat against thee, they would cling to thee,
But they are viler than the loose dark weeds,
Without a place to root or rest in.
They beat against thee, they would cling to thee,
But they are viler than the loose dark weeds,
Without a place to root or rest in.
I would throw them across my lyre; they drop from it;
My lyre will sound only two measures;
That Pity will never, never come,
Or come to the sleep that awakeneth not unto her.
My lyre will sound only two measures;
That Pity will never, never come,
Or come to the sleep that awakeneth not unto her.
| Poems, Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams | |