| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | Echoes from Theocritus
I. Summer Day in Old Sicily | | By Edward Cracroft Lefroy (1855–1891) |
| | | GODS, what a sun! I think the world ’s aglow. | |
| This garment irks me. Phoebus, it is hot! | |
| ’Twere sad if Glycera should find me shot | |
| By flame-tipp’d arrows from the Archer’s bow. | |
| Perchance he envies me,—the villain! O | 5 |
| For one tree’s shadow or a cliff-side grot! | |
| Where shall I shelter that he slay me not? | |
| In what cool air or element?—I know. | |
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| The sea shall save me from the sweltering land: | |
| Far out I’ll wade, till creeping up and up, | 10 |
| The cold green water quenches every limb. | |
| Then to the jealous god with lifted hand | |
| I’ll pour libation from a rosy cup, | |
| And leap, and dive, and see the tunnies swim. | | | | |
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