Thomas MacDonagh

Of a Greek Poem

Crave no more that antique rapture
Now in alien song to reach:
Here uncouth you cannot capture
Gracious truth of Attic speech.

Utterly the flowers perish,
Grace of Athens, Rome's renown,
Giving but a dream to cherish
Tangled in a laurel crown.

I that splendour far pursuing
Left unlit the lamps of home,
And upon my quest went ruing
That I found not Greece or Rome.