Villanelle of Change

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)


1Since Persia fell at Marathon,
2 The yellow years have gathered fast:
3Long centuries have come and gone.

4And yet (they say) the place will don
5 A phantom fury of the past,
6Since Persia fell at Marathon;

7And as of old, when Helicon
8 Trembled and swayed with rapture vast
9(Long centuries have come and gone),

10This ancient plain, when night comes on,
11 Shakes to a ghostly battle-blast,
12Since Persia fell at Marathon.

13But into soundless Acheron
14 The glory of Greek shame was cast:
15Long centuries have come and gone,

16The suns of Hellas have all shone,
17 The first has fallen to the last:—
18Since Persia fell at Marathon,
19Long centuries have come and gone.

Notes

1] Marathon: town on a plain in Attica north of Athens on the Aegean sea where Miltiades defeated the Persian army in 490 B.C.

7] Helicon: mountain in Greece near the Gulf of Corinth.

13] Acheron: river in Hades.

16] Hellas: Greece.

The House on the Hill

They are all gone away,

The House is shut and still,

There is nothing more to say.

Through broken walls and gray

The winds blow bleak and shrill.

They are all gone away.

Nor is there one to-day

To speak them good or ill:

There is nothing more to say.

Why is it then we stray

Around the sunken sill?

They are all gone away,

And our poor fancy-play

For them is wasted skill:

There is nothing more to say.

There is ruin and decay

In the House on the Hill:

They are all gone away,

There is nothing more to say.