Page 1 of 42 CHARMIDES - Charmides and Other Poems

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Charmides and Other Poems, by Oscar Wilde

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Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde Scanned and proofed by David Price ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

Charmides and Other Poems

Contents:

Charmides
Requiescat
San Miniato
Rome Unvisited
Humanitad
Louis Napoleon
Endymion
Le Jardin
La Mer
Le Panneau
Les Ballons
Canzonet
Le Jardin Des Tuileries
Pan: Double Villanelle
In The Forest
Symphony In Yellow

Sonnets:

Helas!
To Milton
On The Massacre Of The Christians In Bulgaria Holy Week At Genoa
Urbs Sacra Aeterna
E Tenebris
At Verona
On The Sale By Auction Of Keats' Love Letters The New Remorse

CHARMIDES

I.

He was a Grecian lad, who coming home With pulpy figs and wine from Sicily Stood at his galley's prow, and let the foam Blow through his crisp brown curls unconsciously, And holding wave and wind in boy's despite Peered from his dripping seat across the wet and stormy night.

Till with the dawn he saw a burnished spear Like a thin thread of gold against the sky, And hoisted sail, and strained the creaking gear, And bade the pilot head her lustily Against the nor'west gale, and all day long Held on his way, and marked the rowers' time with measured song.

And when the faint Corinthian hills were red Dropped anchor in a little sandy bay, And with fresh boughs of olive crowned his head, And brushed from cheek and throat the hoary spray, And washed his limbs with oil, and from the hold Brought out his linen tunic and his sandals brazen-soled,

And a rich robe stained with the fishers' juice Which of some swarthy trader he had bought Upon the sunny quay at Syracuse, And was with Tyrian broideries inwrought, And by the questioning merchants made his way Up through the soft and silver woods, and when the labouring day

Had spun its tangled web of crimson cloud, Clomb the high hill, and with swift silent feet Crept to the fane unnoticed by the crowd Of busy priests, and from some dark retreat Watched the young swains his frolic playmates bring The firstling of their little flock, and the shy shepherd fling

The crackling salt upon the flame, or hang His studded crook against the temple wall To Her who keeps away the ravenous fang Of the base wolf from homestead and from stall; And then the clear-voiced maidens 'gan to sing, And to the altar each man brought some goodly offering,

A beechen cup brimming with milky foam, A fair cloth wrought with cunning imagery Of hounds in chase, a waxen honey-comb Dripping with oozy gold which scarce the bee Had ceased from building, a black skin of oil Meet for the wrestlers, a great boar the fierce and white-tusked spoil

		"By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property." Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire