Poem by Alan Seeger

Lyonesse

In Lyonesse was beauty enough, men say:
Long Summer loaded the orchards to excess,
And fertile lowlands lengthening far away,
               In Lyonesse.

Came a term to that land's old favoredness:
Past the sea-walls, crumbled in thundering spray,
Rolled the green waves, ravening, merciless.

Through bearded boughs immobile in cool decay,
Where sea-bloom covers corroding palaces,
The mermaid glides with a curious glance to-day,
               In Lyonesse. 

1. Thirty Sonnets. 30. At the Tomb of Napoleon before the Elections in America--November, 1912
2. Sonnet 9. Well, seeing I have no hope, then let us part
3. Tithonus
4. Sonnet 5. Seeing you have not come with me, nor spent
5. Thirty Sonnets. 8. Sonnet 8. Oft as by chance, a little while apart

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