# Modern reciter/Hymn on Modern Greece

Hymn on Modern 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 farther west Than your sites' 'Islands of the Bless'd.'
The mountains look on Marathon— And Marathon looks on the sea; And musing there an hour alone, I dream'd that Greece might still be free; For standing on the Persian's grave, I could not deem myself a slave.
A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; And ships, by thousands, lay below, And men in nations;—all were his! He counted them at break of day— And when the sun set, where were they?
And where are they? and where art thou, My country?—On thy voiceless shore The heroic lay is tuneless now— The heroic bosom beats no more! And must thy lyre, so long divine, Degenerate into hands like mine?
​Tis something, in the dearth of fame, Tho' link'd among a fetter'd race, ⟨To⟩ feel at least a patriot's shame, Even as I sing, suffuse my face; ⟨For⟩ what is left the poet here?— ⟨For⟩ Greeks a blush—for Greece a tear.
Must we but weep o'er days more bless'd? Must we but blush?—Our fathers bled, ⟨Earth⟩! render back from out thy breast A remnant of our Spartan dead! ⟨Of⟩ the three hundred, grant but three ⟨To⟩ make a new Thermopyle!
What silent still? and silent all? Ah! no;-the voices of the dead ⟨Sound⟩ like a distant torrent's fall, And answer 'Let one living head, ⟨But⟩ one arise,-we come, we come!' ⟨'Tis⟩ but the living who are dumb.
In vain-in vain; strike other chords; Fill high the cup with Samian wine! ⟨Leave⟩ battles to the Turkish hoards, And shed the blood of Scio's vine! ⟨Hark⟩! rising to the ignoble call- ⟨How⟩ answers each bold baechanal!
You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet, Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone? Of two such lessons why forget The nobler and the manlier one? You have the letters Cadmus gave- Think ye he meant them for a slave?
​Fill high the bowl of Samian wine! We will not think of themes like these! It made Anacreon's song divine: He served—but served Polycrates— A tyrant; but our masters then Were still, at Least, our countrymen.
The tyrant of the Chersonese Was freedom's best and bravest friend: That tyrant was Miltiades! Oh! that the present hour would lend Another despot of the kind! Such chains as his were sure to bind.
Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! On Suli's rock and Parga's shore, Exists the remnant of a line Such as the Doric mothers bore; And there, perhaps, some seed is sown, The Heracleidan blood might own.
Trust not for freedom to the Franks— They have a king who buys and sells: In native swords, and native ranks, The only hope of courage dwells; But Turkish force, and Latin fraud, Would break your shield, however broad.
Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! Our virgins dance beneath the shade— I see their glorious black eyes shine; But gazing on each glowing maid, My own the burning tear-drop laves, To think such breasts must suckle slaves.
​Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, Where nothing, save the waves and I, May hear our mutual murmurs sweep; There, swan-like, let me sing and die: A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine— Dash down the cup of Samian wine!Byron.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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