THE LAST SONG OF SAPPHO

Sound on, thou dark unslumb'ring sea !

My dirge is in thy moan, My spirit finds response in thee, To its own ceaseless cry : « Alone ! Alone ! » Yet send me back one other word

Ye tones that never cease !

Ah ! let your secret caves be stirred And say, dark waters, will ye give me peace ? Away ! my weary soul hath sought

In vain one echoing sigh, One answer to consuming thought In human hearts, and will the wave reply ? Sound on, thou dark unslumb'ring sea!

Sound in thy scorn and pride !

I ask not alien world ! from thee What my own kindred earth hath still denied : And yet I loved that earth so well

With all its charming things Was it for this the death-wind fell On my dear lyre and quenched its living strings? Let them lie silent at my feet,

Since broken even as they The heart whose music made them meet.

Hath poured on desert sands its wealth away. Yet glory's light hath touched my name

The laurel-wreath is mine With a lone heart, a weary frame

0 restless deep ! I come to make them thine ! Give to that crown, that burning crown

Place in thy darkest hold !

Bury my anguish, my renown With hidden wrecks, lost gems and wasted gold ! Thou, sea-bird, on the billow's crest,

Thou hast thy love, thy home.

They wait thee in the quiet nest And I th' unsought, unwatched for-I too come.

1 with this winged nature fraught,

These visions wildly free, This boundless love, this fiery thought. Alone I come, ah ! give me peace, dark sea !

Z^éuoble, marbre original retouché.