| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | Invocation to the Spirit of Achilles | | By Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | | BEAUTIFUL 1 shadow | |
| Of Thetis’s boy! | |
| Who sleeps in the meadow | |
| Whose grass grows o’er Troy: | |
| From the red earth, like Adam, | 5 |
| Thy likeness I shape, | |
| As the being who made him, | |
| Whose actions I ape. | |
| Thou clay, be all glowing | |
| Till the rose in his cheek | 10 |
| Be as fair as, when blowing, | |
| It wears its first streak! | |
| Ye violets, I scatter, | |
| Now turn into eyes! | |
| And thou, sunshiny water, | 15 |
| Of blood take the guise! | |
| Let these hyacinth boughs | |
| Be his long flowing hair, | |
| And wave o’er his brows | |
| As thou wavest in air! | 20 |
| Let his heart be this marble | |
| I tear from the rock! | |
| But his voice as the warble | |
| Of birds on yon oak! | |
| Let his flesh be the purest | 25 |
| Of mould, in which grew | |
| The lily-root surest, | |
| And drank the best dew! | |
| Let his limbs be the lightest | |
| Which clay can compound, | 30 |
| And his aspect the brightest | |
| On earth to be found! | |
| Elements, near me, | |
| Be mingled and stirr’d, | |
| Know me, and hear me, | 35 |
| And leap to my word! | |
| Sunbeams, awaken | |
| This earth’s animation! | |
| ’Tis done! He hath taken | |
| His stand in creation! | 40 |
| | | Note 1. From The Deformed Transformed. Part 1, sc. i. [back] | | |
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