II + 

How strangely still! no sound of life or joy + 

Startles the air; no laughing shepherd-boy + 

Pipes on his reed, nor ever through the day + 

Comes the glad sound of children at their play: + 

O sad, and sweet, and silent! surely here + 

A man might dwell apart from troublous fear, + 

Watching the tide of seasons as they flow + 

From amorous Spring to Winter’s rain and snow, + 

And have no thought of sorrow;⁠—here, indeed, + 

Are Lethe’s waters, and that fatal weed + 

Which makes a man forget his fatherland. + 

Ay! amid lotus-meadows dost thou stand, + 

Like Proserpine, with poppy-laden head, + 

Guarding the holy ashes of the dead. + 

For though thy brood of warrior sons hath ceased, + 

Thy noble dead are with thee!⁠—they at least + 

Are faithful to thine honour:⁠—guard them well, + 

O childless city! for a mighty spell, + 

To wake men’s hearts to dreams of things sublime, + 

Are the lone tombs where rest the Great of Time. + 