The Isles of Greece

The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!

Where burning Sappho lov'd and sung,

Where grew the arts of war and peace—

Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!

Eternal summer gilds them yet,

But all, except their sun, is set.

The Scian and the Teian muse,

The hero's harp, the lover's lute,

Have found the fame your shores refuse;

Their place of birth alone is mute

To sounds which echo farther west

Than your sires' "Islands of the Blest."

The mountains look on Marathon

And Marathon looks on the sea;

And musing there an hour alone,

I dream'd that Greece might still be free;

For standing on the Persian's grave

I could not deem myself a slave.

A king sat on the rocky brow

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis;

And ships, by thousands, lay below,

And men in nations— all were his!

He counted them at break of day—

And when the sun set where were they?

And where are they? and where art thou,

My country? On thy voiceless shore

The heroic lay is tuneless now—

The heroic bosom beats no more!

And must thy lyre, so long divine,

Degenerate into hands like mine?

Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,

Where nothing, save the waves and I

May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;

There, swanlike, let me sing and die:

A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine—

Dash down yon cup of Saurian wine!