Thomas Trevelyan

Reading in Ovid the sorrowful story of Itys,         Son of the love of Tereus and Procne, slain         For the guilty passion of Tereus for Philomela,         The flesh of him served to Tereus by Procne,         And the wrath of Tereus, the murderess pursuing         Till the gods made Philomela a nightingale,         Lute of the rising moon, and Procne a swallow         Oh livers and artists of Hellas centuries gone,         Sealing in little thuribles dreams and wisdom,         Incense beyond all price, forever fragrant,         A breath whereof makes clear the eyes of the soul         How I inhaled its sweetness here in Spoon River!         The thurible opening when I had lived and learned         How all of us kill the children of love, and all of us,         Knowing not what we do, devour their flesh;         And all of us change to singers, although it be         But once in our lives, or change - alas! - to swallows,         To twitter amid cold winds and falling leaves!