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A Song of the Siren
STILL is the Siren warbling on thy shore, | |
| Bright city of the waves! Her magic song | |
| Still, with a dreamy sense of ecstasy, | |
| Fills thy soft summer air: and while my glance | |
| Dwells on thy pictured loveliness, that lay | 5 |
| Floats thus o’er fancy’s ear; and thus to thee, | |
| Daughter of sunshine! doth the Siren sing. | |
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| “Thine is the glad wave’s flashing play, | |
| Thine is the laugh of the golden day,— | |
| The golden day, and the glorious night, | 10 |
| And the vine with its clusters all bathed in light! | |
| Forget, forget, that thou art not free, | |
| Queen of the summer sea! | |
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| “Favored and crowned of the earth and sky! | |
| Thine are all voices of melody, | 15 |
| Wandering in moonlight through fane and tower, | |
| Floating o’er fountain and myrtle bower; | |
| Hark! how they melt o’er thy glittering sea,— | |
| Forget that thou art not free! | |
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| “Let the wine flow in thy marble halls, | 20 |
| Let the lute answer thy fountain falls, | |
| And deck thy feasts with the myrtle bough, | |
| And cover with roses thy glowing brow! | |
| Queen of the day and the summer sea, | |
| Forget that thou art not free!” | 25 |
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| So doth the Siren sing, while sparkling waves | |
| Dance to her chant. But sternly, mournfully, | |
| O city of the deep! from sibyl grots | |
| And Roman tombs the echoes of thy shore | |
| Take up the cadence of her strain alone, | 30 |
| Murmuring, “Thou art not free!” | |
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