The Ægean isles, in quest of flowery prey;

And so it fell one summer afternoon,

As she led thence her train, each wing and thigh

Clogged with the sweets of many an island-bloom,

Just off Mount Sunium’s marble forehead high,

A sudden rain-gust blew them all awry

A thousand leagues into the western sky.

Beneath their flight, a waste of surges wild,

Shoreless and gray the vast Atlantic rolled;

And o’er its waves no Tyrian galley toiled,