Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79. | | | | Greece: Sunium (Colonna), the Cape | | Sunium | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
HIGH o’er the billows Sunium glances now, | |
| An airy temple gleaming on its brow. | |
| Fair mount! the first, the last to greet the eyes | |
| Of those who sail beneath blue Attic skies, | |
| How many a banished Greek, in ancient days, | 5 |
| Hath viewed yon rocks with sadly wistful gaze! | |
| There Simon looked in silence: o’er these seas | |
| Heaved many a sigh the wronged Themistocles; | |
| And he whom gold ne’er tempted, fear ne’er moved, | |
| Exiled by foes he saved, by friends he loved, | 10 |
| Prayed for the land fast fading from his view, | |
| Gazed, while his veteran soul all weakness grew, | |
| Called on the gods,—ah! not to curse, but bless, | |
| Till blinding tears relieved his heart’s distress. | |
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| What though no more on Sunium’s sacred steep | 15 |
| Altars shall blaze, and light the midnight deep, | |
| Or hymns resound at morning’s opening smile, | |
| Answered by songs from neighboring cape and isle, | |
| While clouds of incense floating through the calm, | |
| Sweeten the sea, and fill all heaven with balm; | 20 |
| Those snow-white columns ages still shall brave, | |
| Charm seamen’s eyes, and gleam across the wave, | |
| Dead Art’s sweet spirit watching on that shore | |
| Which Glory owns and gods protect no more. | | | | |
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