John Myers O'Hara. The Greek Quarter. Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. 1917. The Book of New York Verse

Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. The Book of New York Verse. 1917.

The Greek Quarter

By John Myers O’Hara


THE CRYPTIC letters of the golden tongue
The philhellene upon the window sees,
And hears the music of Maeonides
Above the roar by trains and traffic flung;
Heroic odes to Argive valour sung.	5
And softer strains of old idyllic ease;
A solace lure for servile destinies
Unknown to Hellas when the world was young.
I sip the coffee of Demetrios
And listen while my thought is far away;	10
The swarthy faces of the dim café
Are olive vendors on the shores of Cos;
The wall lamps flicker but I peer across
The blue Ægean sparkling in the day.