Rushing war-hosts, horsemen or foot or galleys — br These doth one call, those doth another, fairest br Sights on earth: I say that my love of all is br Sweetest and rarest. br Hear the proof, which lightly, I wot, convinces: — br 'Mid the comely, Helen would fain discover br One without peer, and of the goodly princes br Chose for her lover br Him who brought the glory of Troy to ruin! br Reckless all of parent and child, she lavished br On the alien love for her own undoing; br Troyward was ravished. br Anactoria — she who contemns the blessing br Near at hand, is like to a reed wind-shaken. br Such are you! — love held in secure possessing br You have forsaken. br Her whose footfall's music myself had rather br Hear, and see her face in its beauty beaming. br Than to gaze where horsemen and footmen gather br Panoply-gleaming. br What is best is set above man's attaining; br Yet, if Fortune smiled on us once, 'tis better br To recall with prayer and with upward-straining br Than to forget her.