Andrew Lang

Homer

Homer, thy song men liken to the sea
  With all the notes of music in its tone,
  With tides that wash the dim dominion
Of Hades, and light waves that laugh in glee
Around the isles enchanted; nay, to me
  Thy verse seems as the River of source unknown
  That glasses Egypt's temples overthrown
In his sky-nurtured stream, eternally.

No wiser we than men of heretofore
  To find thy sacred fountains guarded fast;
Enough, thy flood makes green our human shore,
  As Nilus Egypt, rolling down his vast
His fertile flood, that murmurs evermore
  Of gods dethroned, and empires in the past.