Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.
Epidaurus
By Nicholas Michell (1807–1880)(From Ruins of Many Lands)
L
Sacred to health, renowned in classic tale.
Here sprang that sage a precious balm who drew
From every sweet-lipped flower which drinks the dew:
Ay, doubt not,—symbols, scattered stones remain,—
Rose in this glen the healer’s worshipped fane.
Weak age, sick beauty, youth with broken powers,
From distant climes came pilgrims to these bowers,
Fain to escape the grim destroyer, Death,
To pray, to hope, the boon of added breath;
For then, as now, man shrank to tread the shore
Where all is peace, and sorrow comes no more,
Where souls shall spring to new immortal birth,
Endued with powers ne’er known on lower earth.