Classic Poem

I.

A SPRING time eve illumined wide
A sunny Grecian land,
Where peace was guarded valiantly
By many a spearman's hand;
From field and vineyard home returned
The weary peasant crew,
And children laughed and leapt to see
Their fathers come in view.

II.

The closing twilight dimly fell
Above the smoking roofs,
The laborer's eyes dropped heavily,
The housewives left their woofs,
While softly flew the western breeze
Above the woods and streams,
But breathed too low to sound amid
The slumberers' easy dreams.

III.

As on each lonely silent hearth
The blaze was flickering low,
The shaggy wolf-dog stretched himself
Before the crimson glow;
And shy nocturnal visitants,
And horny-footed Pan,
Through all the village wandered slow
To guard the rest of man.

IV.

The mourners felt it comfort now
That they were free to weep,
And in their musing youthful maids
Went smilingly to sleep,
And some in joyous vision sought
The dance in flowery glades,
And some a tenderer delight,
Unseen in forest shades.

V.

Yet one of all the loveliest,
Young Myrto, sought not rest,
By crowding fancies kept awake
That fluttered in her breast,
While mid the pillared porch she sat
Of her old sire's abode,
Unheeding that beneath the stars
Her zoneless bosom glowed.