"About the lips that are no more mine,
Too sweet to forget, too strong to repine.

"With the ends of the earth for thy garden now,
What solace and what reward hast thou?"

Then he of the earth's sun-traversed side
To him of the under-world replied,

"O glad mysterious face in the stream,
My lost illusion, my summer dream,

"Thou fairer self of a fonder time,
A far imperishable clime,

"For thy dear sake I have fared alone
And fronted failure and housed with none.

"What youth was that, when the world was green,
In the lovely mythus Greek and clean,

"Was doomed with his flowery kin to bide,
A blown white star by the river side,

"And no more follow the sun, foot free,
Too long enamoured of one like thee?

"Shall God who abides in the patient flower,
The painted dust sustained by his power,