| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | July 17 | | Leconte de Lisle | | By Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) |
| | | | A French poet, who succeeded Victor Hugo in the French Academy. He died on July 17, 1894. |
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HIS verse was carved in ivory forms undying | |
| As those that deck the marble Phidian frieze. | |
| Over his plaintive hearse to-night is flying | |
| A phantom genius from the Cyclades. | |
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| It hovers till our idle rites be over; | 5 |
| And then will bear him in its arms away | |
| To islands cinctured by the sun, their lover, | |
| And spicy woodlands thrilled with fiery day. | |
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| There his dark hours of toil shall drop, forgotten; | |
| There all he loved, simple and calm and grand— | 10 |
| All the white creatures by his Muse begotten— | |
| Shall cluster round him in a stately band. | |
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| Then shall he smile, appeased by sovereign beauty, | |
| Contented that he strove and waited long, | |
| Since in these worlds where loveliness is duty | 15 |
| His bronze and marble leap to life and song. | | | |
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