CLX.NAMES OF GOOD OMEN.
THERAPIA ON THE BOSPHORUS.
I
The sunny wisdom of the Greeks
All o'er the earth is strewed:
On every dark and awful place,
Rude hill and haunted wood,
The beautiful bright people left
A name of omen good.
II
They would not have an evil word
Weigh heavy on the breeze,
They would not darken mountain side,
Nor stain the shining seas,
With names, of some disastrous past
The unwise witnesses.
III
Here legendary Argo touched
In this blue-watered bay;
Here dark Medea in pursuit
Her poisons cast away,
Polluting even the odorous shades
Of pure Therapia.
IV
Look how the interlacing trees
Their glowing blossoms wreathe!
Is this a spot for poison plants,
For crime or savage death?
The Greeks endured not that on it
Should pass so dire a breath:
V
Unlike the children of romance,—
From out whose spirit deep
The touch of gloom hath passed on glen
And mountain lake and steep,
On Devil's Bridge and Raven's Tower
And lovelorn Maiden's Leap:
VI
Who sought in cavern, wood, and dell,
Where'er they could lay bare
The path of ill, and localized
Terrific legends there,
Leaving a hoarse and ponderous name
To haunt the very air.
VII
Not so the radiant-hearted Greeks,
Who hesitated still
To offend the blessed Presences
Which earth and ocean fill;
Whose tongues, elsewhere so eloquent,
Stammered at words of ill.
VIII
All places, where their presence was
Upon the fruitful earth,
By kindly law were clasped within
The circle of their mirth,
And in their spirits had a new
And consecrated birth.
IX
O bless them for it, traveller!
The fair-tongued ancients bless!
Who thus from land and sea trod out
All footmarks of distress,
Illuminating earth with their
Own inward cheerfulness.
X
Unto the Axine Sea they sent
A name of better feeling;
Dark powers into Eumenides,
A gentle change! were stealing,
And poison-stained Therapia
Became the Bay of Healing!
