The Answer

Take me and hear me, Hamadryads fair, And Aegipans, Wood-Nymphs, and shepherd gods! The bridal beds are set! The forest glades, In flurry! The Flower Festival has come! The bacchic revelry bursts forth in glow And frenzy! Where is nature and where is Its end? I know not whether I am myself; Great Pan, it seems, dwells in my bosom here.

O wonder! I do live the holy life And wild of purest nature's elements! O God of the golden crown, the three fair Graces And the Nine Sisters of the Song gave me The gift of tranquil visions beautiful! I filled me with the foam-begotten beauty Of all! I hear the nightingales' sweet song In answer to the song of Sophocles! The woes of Aeschylus resound prophetic, Ocean-born! Face to face with me, as swift As glance, green-clad Atlantides rise forth From the abyss and sink in it again.

Phoenicians battling with the sea brought me From far away; I am the reveller World-wandering! Arts, talks, and images Are bristling in the air! Take me, O Nymphs Into your bosom! Satyrs, hear my words!

Yet Satyrs, Centaurs, Hamadryad Nymphs, And golden-spoken Hellades at once Made answer to my pleading with one voice From cities, mountains, forests, cliffs, and plains:

"Gods' wine is not for thee, O reveller!"

And the lithe Tanagraean maiden spoke With awe-inspiring prophetess Cassandra, Ivy-crowned Maenads, Gods Olympian, And the song-nourished Hellades; they spoke From the far cave of fair Calypso to The wisdom-haunted Alexandria:

"Silence! Pale monk and idle chatterer! Silence! Turn back to thy lone cloister cell."

And the Pindaric heroes laugh in scorn With the white goddesses of marble wrought By Scopas' hand; laugh, and their laughter-peals Are echoed loud and deep from far away!