Poem by Alan Seeger

Thirty Sonnets. 18. Antinous

Stretched on a sunny bank he lay at rest,
Ferns at his elbow, lilies round his knees,
With sweet flesh patterned where the cool turf pressed,
Flowerlike crept o'er with emerald aphides.
Single he couched there, to his circling flocks
Piping at times some happy shepherd's tune,
Nude, with the warm wind in his golden locks,
And arched with the blue Asian afternoon.
Past him, gorse-purpled, to the distant coast
Rolled the clear foothills.  There his white-walled town,
There, a blue band, the placid Euxine lay.
Beyond, on fields of azure light embossed
He watched from noon till dewy eve came down
The summer clouds pile up and fade away.

1. Thirty Sonnets. 5. Sonnet 5. A tide of beauty with returning May
2. The Sultan's Palace
3. Thirty Sonnets. 15. Sonnet 15. Above the ruin of God's holy place
4. Thirty Sonnets. 13. Sonnet 13. I fancied, while you stood conversing there
5. Thirty Sonnets. 30. At the Tomb of Napoleon before the Elections in America--November, 1912

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