Fragments Written for Hellas

Fairest of the Destinies, Disarray thy dazzling eyes: Keener far thy lightnings are Than the winged thou bearest, And the smile thou wearest Wraps thee as a star Is wrapped in light.

Could Arethuse to her forsaken urn From Alpheus and the bitter Doris run, Or could the morning shafts of purest light Again into the quivers of the Sun Be gathered--could one thought from its wild flight Return into the temple of the brain Without a change, without a stain,-- Could aught that is, ever again Be what it once has ceased to be, Greece might again be free!

A star has fallen upon the earth Mid the benighted nations, A quenchless atom of immortal light, A living spark of Night, A cresset shaken from the constellations. Swifter than the thunder fell To the heart of Earth, the well Where its pulses flow and beat, And unextinct in that cold source Burns, and on ... course Guides the sphere which is its prison, Like an angelic spirit pent In a form of mortal birth, Till, as a spirit half-arisen Shatters its charnel, it has rent, In the rapture of its mirth, The thin and painted garment of the Earth, Ruining its chaos--a fierce breath Consuming all its forms of living death.