Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79. | | | | Greece: Epidaurus (Pidauria) | | Epidaurus | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
LO! Epidaurus spreads his velvet vale, | |
| Sacred to health, renowned in classic tale. | |
| Here sprang that sage a precious balm who drew | |
| From every sweet-lipped flower which drinks the dew: | |
| Ay, doubt not,—symbols, scattered stones remain,— | 5 |
| Rose in this glen the healer’s worshipped fane. | |
| Weak age, sick beauty, youth with broken powers, | |
| From distant climes came pilgrims to these bowers, | |
| Fain to escape the grim destroyer, Death, | |
| To pray, to hope, the boon of added breath; | 10 |
| For then, as now, man shrank to tread the shore | |
| Where all is peace, and sorrow comes no more, | |
| Where souls shall spring to new immortal birth, | |
| Endued with powers ne’er known on lower earth. | | | | |
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