Helen by Hilda Doolittle
All Greece hates the still eyes in the white face, the lustre as of olives where she stands, and the white hands.
All Greece reviles the wan face when she smiles, hating it deeper still when it grows wan and white, remembering past enchantments and past ills.
Greece sees, unmoved, God's daughter, born of love, the beauty of cool feet and slenderest knees, could love indeed the maid, only if she were laid, white ash amid funereal cypresses.
|