Sonnets of the Wingless Hours :: :: University of Virginia Library

Sonnets of the Wingless Hours

By Eugene Lee-Hamilton

Lee-Hamilton, Eugene

[epigraph]

[dedication]

SECTION I. A WHEELED BED 1873-1893

II.

SECTION II. BRUSH AND CHISEL

III.

SECTION III. LIFE AND FATE

IV.

SECTION IV. THE AFTER-LIFE.

THE OBOL.

WINE OF OMAR KHAYYÁM.

THE WRECK OF HEAVEN. I.

THE WRECK OF HEAVEN. II.

SECTION V. MISCELLANEOUS.

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THE OBOL.

Scarce have I rhymed of Charon looming gray
Amid pale rushes, through the dusky air,
And of the obol we no longer care
To put in dead men's mouths as ferry-pay,

When, lo, I find, among some pence, to-day
Received as common change, I know not where,
A stray Greek obol, seeming Charon's fare
To put between my lips when I be clay.

Poor bastard Obol, even couldst thou cheat
The shadowy Boatman, I should scarcely find
The heart to cross: extinction seems so sweet.

I need thee not; and thou shalt be consigned
To some old whining beggar in the street,
Whose soul shall cross, while mine shall stay behind.

The coin referred to in this sonnet was a modern Greek piece of five lepta, rather smaller than a halfpenny, and bearing the word Obolos on the reverse.