William Alexander (1824-1911). Sonnets. St. John at Patmos. II. "Not fancies of the soft Ionian clime." Alfred H. Miles, ed. 1907. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

Sonnets.
St. John at Patmos.
II. “Not fancies of the soft Ionian clime”

By William Alexander (1824–1911)


NOT fancies of the soft Ionian clime,
Nor thoughts on Plato’s page, that greener grow
Than do the plane-trees by the pleasant flow
Of the Ilissus in the summer time,
Came to the Galilean with sweet chime.	5
Blanch’d in the blaze of Syrian summers lo!
He gazes on Gennesareth, aglow
Within its golden mountain cup sublime.
The sunset comes. Behind the Roman tower
The dark boat’s circled topsails shift and swell,	10
The tunick’d boatmen dip their nets an hour,
And the sun goeth down on Jezreel.
Quench’d is the flickering furnace of the dust,
The mountains branded as with red gold dust.