Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLYMPIAN VICTORS, by                    
First Line: I stood on the slope of kronos gray, above the olympian plain
Last Line: And played in the porch of echo with a murmur long and sweet.
Subject(s): Athletes; Olympia, Greece; Temples; Victory; Mosques


I STOOD on the slope of Kronos gray, above the Olympian plain,
Where swift Alpheus still pursues his vanishing love in vain,
And wondered deep at the picture rare revealed by the German spade —
A picture aglow on history's page with colors that never fade.

For I saw below me the Stadium, alive with flying feet,
And banked humanity gazing hard at the naked runners fleet;
And every city's son at prayer that his own shall win the race,
While a lifetime's ambition flushes warm on every athlete's face.

And off toward the curve of the Cladeus, in the sacred Altis walls,
Rose the pillars of that temple vast whose god forever calls
The victor to bend at his throne, and be crowned with Hercules' olive bough,
And go forth with the fame of his glory bound about his leafy brow.

And then, methought, amid the throng the gray Herodotus read,
As young Thucydides followed rapt his history's golden thread;
And soft in the temple's shadow the high-browed Plato walked,
While girt with a wondering multitude the sovereign Socrates talked.

Then slow past my eye through the Altis a stately procession moved,
With the psalm of the victor leading on the athletes that stood approved —
Up the steps of the temple and on to the feet of Zeus,
Where the purpled judges placed the crowns Athena alone can produce.

And up from the free-born races, the lovers of beauty and strength,
From the trembling western river through the Altis' sacred length,
A tide of resounding plaudits swelled full to old Kronos' feet
And played in the porch of Echo with a murmur long and sweet.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net