Like heavy wheels on the ocean shore,
And a savage trumpet's note pealed out,
Till their hearts for terror died!

On the armor of the god

Then a viewless hand was laid;

There were helm and spear, with a clanging din,
And corselet brought from the shrine within,
From the inmost shrine of the dread abode,
And before its front arrayed.

And a sudden silence fell

Through the dim and loaded air!
On the wild bird's wing, and the myrtle-spray,
And the very founts, in their silvery way,
With a weight of sleep came down the spell,
Till man grew breathless there.

But the pause was broken soon !
'T was not by song or lyre;

For the Delphian maids had left their bowers,
And the hearths were lone in the city's towers,
But there burst a sound through the misty noon,
That battle-noon of fire!

It burst from earth and heaven!
It rolled from crag and cloud!
For a moment of the mountain-blast,
With a thousand stormy voices passed,

And the purple gloom of the sky was riven,

When the thunder pealed aloud.

And the lightnings in their play

Flashed forth, like javelins thrown;

Like sun-darts winged from the silver bow,
They smote the spear and the turbaned brow,
And the bright gems flew from the crests like spray,
And the banners were struck down!

And the massy oak-boughs crashed To the fire-bolts from on high, And the forest lent its billowy roar,

While the glorious tempest onward bore,

And lit the streams, as they foamed and dashed, With the fierce rain sweeping by.

Then rushed the Delphian men

On the pale and scattered host;
Like the joyous burst of a flashing wave,
They rushed from the dim Corycian cave,
And the singing blast o'er wood and glen
Rolled on, with the spears they tossed.

There were cries of wild dismay,
There were shouts of warrior-glee,

There were savage sounds of the tempest's mirth,
That shook the realm of their eagle-birth;

But the mount of song, when they died away,

Still rose, with its temple, free!

And the Pœan swelled erelong,
Io Paan! from the fane;

Io Pean! for the war-array,

On the crowned Parnassus riven that day!
Thou shalt rise as free, thou mount of song!
With thy bounding streams again.

Felicia Hemans.

Epidaurus (Pidauria).

EPIDAURUS.

LO! Epidaurus spreads his velvet vale,

Sacred to health, renowned in classic tale. Here sprang that sage a precious balm who drew From every sweet-lipped flower which drinks the dew: Ay, doubt not, symbols, scattered stones remain, Rose in this glen the healer's worshipped fane. Weak age, sick beauty, youth with broken powers, From distant climes came pilgrims to these bowers, Fain to escape the grim destroyer, Death, To pray, to hope, the boon of added breath; For then, as now, man shrank to tread the shore Where all is peace, and sorrow comes no more, Where souls shall spring to new immortal birth, Endued with powers ne'er known on lower earth. Nicholas Michell

0

Geraneia.

INSCRIBED ON A CENOTAPH.

CLOUD-CAPT Geraneia, rock unblest!

Would thou hadst reared far hence thy haughty
crest,

By Tanais wild, or wastes where Ister flows,
Nor looked on Sciron from thy silent snows!
A cold, cold corpse he lies beneath the wave,
This tomb speaks, tenantless, his ocean-grave.
Simonides.

Tr. Anon.

Helicon, the Mountain.

THE MUSES OF HELICON.

EGIN we from the Muses, O my song!

BEGIN

Muses of Helicon: their dwelling-place The mountain vast and holy: where around The altar of high Jove and fountain dark From azure depth, they lightly leap in dance With delicate feet; and having duly bathed Their tender bodies in Permessian streams,

In springs that gushed fresh from the courser's hoof, Or blest Olmius' waters, many a time

Upon the topmost ridge of Helicon

Their elegant and amorous dances thread,

And smite the earth with strong-rebounding feet.
Thence breaking forth tumultuous, and enwrapt
With the deep mist of air, they onward pass
Nightly, and utter, as they sleep on high,
A voice in stilly darkness beautiful.

They hymn the praise of Ægis-wielding Jove,
And Juno, named of Argos, who august
In golden sandals walks; and her, whose eyes
Glitter with azure light, Minerva born
From Jove; Apollo, sire of prophecy,
And Dian gladdened by the twanging bow;
Earth-grasping Neptune, shaker of earth's shores;
Majestic Themis and Dione fair;

And Venus twinkling bland her tremulous lids;
Hebe, her brows with golden fillet bound;
Morn, the vast Sun, and the resplendent Moon;
Latona and Japetus; and him

Of crooked wisdom, Saturn; and the Earth;
And the huge Ocean, and the sable Night,
And all the sacred race of deities

Existing ever. They to Hesiod erst

Have taught their stately song, the whilst he fed His lambs beneath the holy Helicon.

HELICON.

Hesiod. Tr. C. A. Elton.

A

WAKE, Æolian lyre! awake,

And give to rapture all thy trembling strings;

From Helicon's harmonious springs

A thousand rills their mazy progress take;