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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  On a Picture of Leander

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.

Turkey in Europe, and the Principalities: Dardanelles (Hellespont)

On a Picture of Leander

By John Keats (1795–1821)

COME hither, all sweet maidens soberly,

Down-looking aye, and with a chastened light

Hid in the fringes of your eyelids white,

And meekly let your fair hands joined be,

As if so gentle that ye could not see,

Untouched, a victim of your beauty bright,

Sinking away to his young spirit’s night,

Sinking bewildered mid the dreary sea:

’T is young Leander toiling to his death;

Nigh swooning, he doth purse his weary lips

For Hero’s cheek, and smiles against her smile.

O horrid dream! see how his body dips

Dead-heavy; arms and shoulders gleam awhile:

He ’s gone; up bubbles all his amorous breath!