Modern History Sourcebook: Lord Byron: 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.A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks on 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 he