Classic Poem

Deep in our soul-seas there are sunken hopes
That once gleamed marble-white, pure shafts of stone
With carvings thereupon of cryptic joy
Long, long forgotten; streets submerged, that erst
Were brave with every sign of festal life;
And scented groves that stand for dreams; and near,
Great towers stately builded, palaces
For pleasure-making when the time was May;
All dim in tangles of mermaiden's hair.
The traffic of a world of elder time
Choked potently by water, and engirt
With grewsome shapes and growths beneath the brine.

Deep in our soul-seas, drowned; while present waves
Push down and hide the lost Atlantis, once
So regnant in our Past; and summer sails
Fleet onward toward new western isles, since man
Must ever gear him for new quests, and leave
The mute memorials of the lapsed years.