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Edwin Arlington Robinson - The White Lights
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(BROADWAY, 1906)


When in from Delos came the gold  
That held the dream of Pericles,  
When first Athenian ears were told  
The tumult of Euripides,  
When men met Aristophanes,
Who fledged them with immortal quills—  
Here, where the time knew none of these,  
There were some islands and some hills.  
  
When Rome went ravening to see  
The sons of mothers end their days,
When Flaccus bade Leuconoë  
To banish her chaldean ways,  
When first the pearled, alembic phrase  
Of Maro into music ran—  
Here there was neither blame nor praise
For Rome, or for the Mantuan.  
  
When Avon, like a faery floor,  
Lay freighted, for the eyes of One,  
With galleons laden long before  
By moonlit wharves in Avalon—
Here, where the white lights have begun  
To seethe a way for something fair,  
No prophet knew, from what was done,  
That there was triumph in the air.
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