{"collection":"Classics","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cla/pos/pos15.htm","path":"cla/pos/pos15.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cla/pos/pos15.htm","text":"The Poems of Sappho, by John Myers O'Hara, [1910]\nSofter than mists o\u2019er the pale green of waters,\n O\u2019er the charmed sea, shod with sandals of shadow\n Comes the warm sleep wind of Argolis, floating\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Garlands of fragrance;\nComes the sweet wind by the still hours attended,\n Touching tired lids on the shores dim with distance,\n Ever its way toward the headland of Lesbos,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Toward Mitylene.\nFaintly one fair star of evening enkindles\n On the dusk afar its lone fire \u0152tean,\n Shining serene till the darkness will deepen\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Others to splendor;\nBringing ineffable peace, and the gladsome\n Return with the night of all things that morning\n Ruthlessly parted, the child to its mother,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lover to lover.\nFrom the marble court of rose-crowned companions,\n All alone my feet again seek the little\n Theatre pledged to the Muse, now deserted,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Facing the surges;\nWhere the carved Pan-heads that laugh down the gentle\n Slope of broad steps to the refluent ripple,\n Flute from their thin pipes the dithyrambs deathless,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Songs all unuttered.\nEmpty each seat where my girl friends acclaimed me,\n Poets with names on the tiered stone engraven,\n Over whose verge blooms the apple tree, drifting\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Perfume and petals;\nGone Telesippa and tender Gyrinno,\n Anactoria, woman divine; Atthis,\n Subtlest of soul, fair Damophyla, Dica,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Maids of the Muses.\nHere an hour past soul-enravished they listened\n While my rapt heart breathed its p\u00e6an impassioned,\n Chanted its wild prayer to thee, Aphrodite,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Daughter of Cyprus;\nNow to their homes are they gone in the city,\n Pensive to dream limb-relaxed while the languid\n Slaves come and lift from the tresses they loosen,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Flowers that have faded.\nThou alone, Sappho, art sole with the silence,\n Sole with night and dreams that are darkness, weaving\n Thoughts that are sighs from the heart and their meaning\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Vague as the shadow;\nWhen the great silence shall come to thee, sad one,\n Men that forget shall remember thy music,\n Murmur thy name that shall steal on their passion\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Soft as the sleep wind.","title":"The Poems of Sappho: Sapphics: The Sleep Wind","type":"page"}