 | Poems with Fables in Prose |  |
5
The Strait
Ah, sleepless race,
Ye that a thousand years sail'd to destroy
Past Lemnos Isle and Samothrace
The cloud-rebuilded pirate fort of Troy—
Who perish'd not for Helen's face
To keep for kings her beauty's joy,
But died to burst the Asian robbers' gate
And send Athena sailing thro' the iron strait
On lifted shield,—
Ye that a thousand years sail'd to destroy
Past Lemnos Isle and Samothrace
The cloud-rebuilded pirate fort of Troy—
Who perish'd not for Helen's face
To keep for kings her beauty's joy,
But died to burst the Asian robbers' gate
And send Athena sailing thro' the iron strait
On lifted shield,—
Sleep now in pride!
Asia shall yield to you to-day once more
When beak'd ships of the freemen ride
Past Holy Wisdom's wave-wash'd templedoor!
Across the Hellespont's astride
Power darker than the Minotaur.
But in your Goddess Virgin's battle-wake
Again shall we the sea-path into freedom break
That you reveal'd.
Asia shall yield to you to-day once more
When beak'd ships of the freemen ride
Past Holy Wisdom's wave-wash'd templedoor!
Across the Hellespont's astride
Power darker than the Minotaur.
But in your Goddess Virgin's battle-wake
Again shall we the sea-path into freedom break
That you reveal'd.
1917.
| Poems with Fables in Prose | |