John Jay Chapman

Sappho’s Last Song

THIS was the summer whose gradual splendor Burned the meridian while the deep sea Whispering, murmuring, watched the surrender, Cradled my union, my loved one, with thee. Mute was the music and mystic the pæan That skirted the magical days as they fled. These were the nights when the starred empyrean Bent o'er the passion it silently fed. Turn, ancient Earth! as with slumbering motion Thou steerest thy course through the spaces divine, The dome of thy stars, and the caves of thine ocean Re-echo forever the love that was mine.