HELENA'S BEACONS.
21
They beam above Maander's tide;
Wake Sardis with its shrines;
And lo! again leap shore and main
Where Lesbos fronts the Mysian plain
And lights her answering pines!
From isle to isle, from wave to lea,
The torches never falter,
Till high they burn, like the flush of dawn,
On Ilion's mountain altar!
So clear and high on Ida's crest
And the crags that climb where the north winds rest,
That great Olympus sees—
Asian Olympus crowned with snows,
A peak of heaven at daylight's close
Dark-set in towering trees.
And higher still his beacon soars,
A hundred flames in one,
And glows adown the dusky vales
And gilds the far Propontis-sails,
Red as the rising sun.
It flashes to the palace walls!
The waiting Emperor greets!
And the shouts that shook Jerusalem
Ring through the royal streets!
And torches blaze and banners gleam,
While loud the heralds call:
"To the church of the Holy Apostles,
That the Lord be praised for all!"
And wild the people throng the way
To the stately courts more bright than day,
Wake Sardis with its shrines;
And lo! again leap shore and main
Where Lesbos fronts the Mysian plain
And lights her answering pines!
From isle to isle, from wave to lea,
The torches never falter,
Till high they burn, like the flush of dawn,
On Ilion's mountain altar!
So clear and high on Ida's crest
And the crags that climb where the north winds rest,
That great Olympus sees—
Asian Olympus crowned with snows,
A peak of heaven at daylight's close
Dark-set in towering trees.
And higher still his beacon soars,
A hundred flames in one,
And glows adown the dusky vales
And gilds the far Propontis-sails,
Red as the rising sun.
It flashes to the palace walls!
The waiting Emperor greets!
And the shouts that shook Jerusalem
Ring through the royal streets!
And torches blaze and banners gleam,
While loud the heralds call:
"To the church of the Holy Apostles,
That the Lord be praised for all!"
And wild the people throng the way
To the stately courts more bright than day,
