26.12.2010, 12:37
DECADENCE OF GREECE, 1830.
TO
Young tourist to the land whose hope has pass'd !
Fain would I seek with thee those shores sublime
That hear no promise from the lips of Time,
Of hours so bright as those he overcast !
There is that Athens ! still in ruin fair,
Though long gone by her intellectual reign ;
Arcadia waits in patient beauty there.
To hear her lingering shepherd's voice again !
Too oft our travellers ply a clumsy art
Here in the West ! No faithful light they lend ;
But keep the dues of Fame so ill apart,
That the great claims of mount and valley blend ;
Misname the passes with incurious ease,
And mix the records of the plashing seas !
TO
Young tourist to the land whose hope has pass'd !
Fain would I seek with thee those shores sublime
That hear no promise from the lips of Time,
Of hours so bright as those he overcast !
There is that Athens ! still in ruin fair,
Though long gone by her intellectual reign ;
Arcadia waits in patient beauty there.
To hear her lingering shepherd's voice again !
Too oft our travellers ply a clumsy art
Here in the West ! No faithful light they lend ;
But keep the dues of Fame so ill apart,
That the great claims of mount and valley blend ;
Misname the passes with incurious ease,
And mix the records of the plashing seas !