The violet crown by Sir Rennell Rodd :: :: University of Virginia Library

Twenty years have gone their way,
City of the Violet Crown,
Since I sang of thy renown.
Twenty years, and what are they
By thine immemorial age!
Time to see the gold turn grey,
And the worthiest miss their wage,
And the fool outlive the sage.

They have seen thine arm made bold,
City of the Violet Crown,
And the horned moon go down,
As a voice long still foretold
Once by Misolonghi's fen;
Twenty years that made me old
Gave thee all thy youth again
In the motherhood of men.

110

Now where far Corcyra's isle
Like a lonely outpost stands
Watching the unransomed lands,
Where Chimari's crags revile
Memories of an evil past,
Where across the grim defile
Tragic Suli's shade is cast,
Surely dawn comes up at last.

Athens, we were lovers long,
All the old unhappy days,
Through division and dispraise,
When thy nearest did thee wrong:
I whose faith has not been vain
Need to bring thee no new song
Now the wingless Nike's fane
Claims its goddess back again.

Red with storm the year goes by;
Much is done,—far more to do,
When thy banner's white and blue
Fronting a serener sky

111

Brings these stricken valleys peace.
Not enough to dare and die,
Dare to live when strife shall cease
Greatly for the greater Greece!

Dec. 31, 1912.