Their streaming tears, while others dumbly gazed on the receding tide.
With downcast eyes, seven youths, seven maidens passed
On board the galley, when my Cretan eyes
Saw Niobe-like Athens mourn her sons, passing to sacrifice.
The raven bark unfurled its ebon wings
And like a bird, flew lightly from the strand;
While, far behind, in distance growing dim, declined the cloud-like land.
Away, away, across the billowy sea,
The galley flew: night came and went again,
When, with the rising sun, Crete’s porphyry walls rose from the crimson main.