Eight Harvard Poets/Threnody (Mitchell)

For works with similar titles, see Threnody.

THRENODY

HAVE you forgotten me,
O my beloved?
Have you deserted me
      Now in the autumn?

See where the swallows fly
      South o'er the ocean:
Soon will the winter wind
      Sweep the Ægean.

Up from the vineyard comes
      Music of laughter;
Far through the valleys they
      Gather the harvest.

Westward the evening star
      Sinks in the mountains;
Pale 'neath the rising moon
      Lies Mytilene.

Here where the headland looks
      Wide o'er the water,
I have brought laurel leaves,
      Decking your barrow.

Why do I linger now
      Vainly lamenting?
O it is lonely, love, —
      Lonely in Lesbos!