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The Poems of Sappho, by John Myers O'Hara, [1910], at sacred-texts.com


p. 31

PARTHENEIA

DIDAKTIKA

p. 32 p. 33

MAIDENHOOD

Do I long for maidenhood?
  Do I long for days
When upon the mountain slope
  I would stand and gaze
Over the Ægean's blue
  Melting into mist,
Ere with love my virgin lips
  Cercolas had kissed?

Maidenhood, O maidenhood,
  Whither hast thou flown?
To a land beyond the sea
  Thou hast never known
.
Maidenhood, O maidenhood,
  Wilt return to me?
Never will my bloom again
  Give its grace to thee
.

Now the autumn skies are low,
  Youth and summer sped;
Shepherd hills are far away,
  Cercolas is dead.
Mitylene's marble courts
  Echo with my name;—
Maidenhood, we never dreamed,
  Long ago of fame.


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