E. Preston Dargan. For a Map of Mars. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

For a Map of Mars

By E. Preston Dargan

[The names are those commonly used by astronomers.]

WHEN the Earth-king came to woo her,
Long after the Earth was one,
Queen Phlargis, in Mars Planet,
Had treatied with the Sun.

She had riven the ice forever	5
Out of the Sirens’ Sea,
Had bridged the Hyberborean
And raised sky-towers three.

At the door of her frozen palace
Her heart was made as fire,	10
And she fled through many races
To the lands of broad Argyre.

Harold through all Arabia
Followed the flying Queen,
By the sands of Thimiamata,	15
By Gehon’s gardens green;

In the City of Many Mountains,
’Twixt the Sun-Lake and Bay of Dawn,
Their armies still invisible,
Their souls together drawn,	20

They greatly grew in stature,
They joined their royal hands,
And the Earth’s little ball became a thrall
To the sway of mightier lands.

But they, in the far Phaetontis,	25
Above the Sirens’ Sea,
Stilled in music and marble,
Forgot the things to be.