Like us distracted, and like us unblest.
Soon, soon thy cheer would die, Thy hopes grow timorous, and unfixed thy powers,
And thy clear aims be cross and shifting made;
And then thy glad perennial youth would fade, Fade, and grow old at last, and die like ours.
Then fly our greetings, fly our speech and smiles ! As some grave Tyrian trader, from the sea,
Descried at sunrise an emerging prow Lifting the cool-haired creepers stealthily, The fringes of a southward-facing brow
Among the ^grean isles; And saw the merry Grecian coaster come,
Freighted with amber grapes, and Chian wine, Green, bursting figs, and tunnies steeped in
brine And knew the intruders on his ancient home,
The young light-hearted masters of the waves And snatched his rudder, and shook out more
sail;
And day and night held on indignantly O'er the blue Midland waters with the gale, Betwixt the Syrtcs and soft Sicily,
To where the Atlantic raves Outside the western straits; and unbent sails
There, where down cloudy cliffs, through sheets of
foam,
Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come; And on the beach undid his corded bales.
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