Classic Poem

At daybreak on the morrow
gold seethed in the waters;
soon in the bright sky the disc all gilded
mounted slow.

Then on bended knee, with head bowed down
above the peaceful glimmer of the burnished waves
the heroes sang a hymn of praise to Apollo
God of the Sun.

“O luminous youth imperishable,
sky-wanderer,
gold-winged ocean bird,
musician of the undying lyre,
eye of the Universe,
Hail!

Live-bodied figure of Mycenean gold,
strike with your rays to bring
yet greater light,
and on this our unknown voyage
protect us, O radiant one!”
The bright sun smiling,
gold primal male, diamond-flashing,
blazes in white fire.

A scrap of cloud
alone in the vast azure
like a ship—
cast out of home, without kin, of fallen lineage,
on the lifeline of the waters' weft
without a steersman—
drifted in the blue.
The Grecian heroes watched it
lit to radiance by the sun.