Gythio's Spell


Gladly would I leave behind all the winters
Of weal and woe for long lazy summers
In ancient Peloponnesus' life-giving waters
Where on gently running streams and rivers
I may rest my soul from life's aging cares
And be free to bloom like wild flowers!

Youth's fleeting glance can yet be seen
There at break of dawn in skies serene
Seeking the secret coves of sweet romance
Where the pining heart can yet dance
To the sacred sound of Aphrodite's music
On grass that softly lures it to gentle frolic!

To behold dreamlike Hydra's shining light
Bathed in wine-dark waters of pure delight
While the sun at journey's end silently sets
Would make of me a soul that never frets
But in the ticking sands of receding time
Finds in a Morean  smile a rose and a rhyme!

High over the hills overlooking Cytherea's
Virgin shores the sea-gull's all-sseing eyes
Catch the broken shafts of shimmering surf
And wild orchids bedeck this blessed earth
Amidst furze, juniper and deep purple violet
That turn the lone wanderer into a lyric poet!

Io's restless soul on moonlit starry nights
Still roams and pines for jovian rites.
Once into a heifer was the fair maiden
Turned out of ill-fated Olympian love.
And love too in later years blinded Helen
Who with Paris hid in Gythio's rocky cove.

Oh! the beauty of these dream-haunted vales
And of the open glades while the wind wails
Among the singing holly-oaks, firs and pines
Fills the bemused mind with immortal lines.
How sad it is to live without having loved
But sadder still never to have in Hellas roved!


Claudio Wye