8

3

Strive not to wake the dead;
the incomparable host
with Helen and Achilles,
are not dead, not lost;
the islands are fair (nor far),
Paphos, the Cyclades;
a simple spiral-shell may tell
a tale more ancient
than these mysteries;
dare the uncharted seas,
Achilles waits, and life;
beyond these pylons and these gates,
is magic of the wind, the gale;
the mystery of a forest-tree,
whispering its secrets upon Kithairon,
holds subtler meaning,
than this written stone
or leaves of the papyrus;
let rapture summon
and the foam-flecked sand,
and wind and hail,
rain, sleet and the bewildering snow
that lifts and falls,
conceals, reveals,
(the actual
and the apparent veil),
Helen--come home.