Antinous

Alan Seeger

Stretched on a sunny bank he lay at rest,

Ferns at his elbow, lilies round his knees,

With sweet flesh patterned where the cool turf pressed,

Flowerlike crept o’er with emerald aphides.

Single he couched there, to his circling flocks

Piping at times some happy shepherd’s tune,

Nude, with the warm wind in his golden locks,

And arched with the blue Asian afternoon.

Past him, gorse-purpled, to the distant coast

Rolled the clear foothills. There his white-walled town,

There, a blue band, the placid Euxine lay.

Beyond, on fields of azure light embossed

He watched from noon till dewy eve came down

The summer clouds pile up and fade away