Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79. | | | | Greece: Marathon | | The Sleeper of Marathon | | Felicia Hemans (1793–1835) |
| | | I LAY upon the solemn plain | |
| And by the funeral mound, | |
| Where those who died not there in vain | |
| Their place of sleep had found. | |
| ’T was silent where the free blood gushed, | 5 |
| When Persia came arrayed,— | |
| So many a voice had there been hushed, | |
| So many a footstep stayed. | |
| |
| I slumbered on the lonely spot, | |
| So sanctified by Death,— | 10 |
| I slumbered,—but my rest was not | |
| As theirs who lay beneath. | |
| For on my dreams, that shadowy hour, | |
| They rose,—the chainless dead,— | |
| All armed they sprang, in joy, in power, | 15 |
| Up from their grassy bed. | |
| |
| I saw their spears, on that red field, | |
| Flash as in time gone by,— | |
| Chased to the seas, without his shield | |
| I saw the Persian fly. | 20 |
| I woke,—the sudden trumpet’s blast | |
| Called to another fight,— | |
| From visions of our glorious past, | |
| Who doth not wake in might? | | | | |
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