7.8

Strive not to wake the dead;

the incomparable host

with Helen and Achilles

are not dead, not lost;

the isles are fair (nor far),

Paphos, the Cyclades;

a simple spiral-shell may tell

a tale more ancient

than these mysteries;

dare the uncharted seas,

Achilles waits, and life;

beyond these pylons and these gates,

is magic of the wind, the gale;

the mystery of a forest-tree,

whispering its secrets upon Cithaeron,

holds subtler meaning

than this written stone

or leaves of the papyrus;

let rapture summon

and the foam-flecked sand,

and wind and hail,

rain, sleet and the bewildering snow

that lifts and falls,

conceals, reveals,

(the actual

and the apparent veil),

Helen - come home.

H.D., Helen in Egypt, New Directions, s.d. (1961, 1ªed.)