THE isles of Greece! the isles of Greece!

THE isles of Greece!  the isles of Greece!

Where burning Sappho loved and sung,

Where grew the arts of war and peace,---

Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung!

Eternal summer gilds them yet,

But all, except their sun, is set. The Scian and the Teian muse,

The hero's harp, the lover's lute,

Have found the fame your shores refuse;

Their place of birth alone is mute

To sounds which echo further west

Than your sires' "Islands of the Blest." The mountains look on Marathon---

And Marathon looks on the sea;

And musing there an hour alone,

I dream'd that Greece might yet be free

For, standing on the Persians' grave,

I could not deem myself a slave.

 

Text:  George Gordon, Lord Byron,  from Don Juan (Canto III), 1819

Upper illustration:  Edward Lear, Landscape in Apokorona (Crete) I, 1864

Lower illustration:  Edward Lear, Landscape in Apokorona (Crete) II, 1864

I Shall Be Released: The Box Tops (Link)