 | English Roses |  |
577
MIMNERMUS AND NANNO.
Say, Nanno, is it twice or thriceA thousand years since we
Toyed with the trappings of the vice,
Which made thee softly free?
And did I act in human form,
Whilst thou upon the flute
Didst conquer every human storm
And win a world's repute?
And have I danced with purest joy
To hear thee sweetly play,
And were we ever girl and boy—
It seems but yesterday?
Yes, we have wandered wide and far
And drunk at other founts,
In many a dim and distant star
But by no fairer mounts.
And here we meet in aching dearth
To find a discrowned head,
And on a squalid homeless earth
We see our Hellas dead.
Ah, by her broken altars fling
Again thy breaking flute,
And for the shadow of a king
Let music now be mute.
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