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translated from the ancient Greek by Bliss Carman
I seek and desire,
Even as the wind
That travels the plain
And stirs in the bloom
Of the apple-tree.
I wander through life,
With the searching mind
That is never at rest,
Till I reach the shade
Of my lover’s door.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on February 14, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.
Some say thronging cavalry, some say foot soldiers,
others call a fleet the most beautiful of
sights the dark earth offers, but I say it’s what-
ever you love best.
And it’s easy to make this understood by
everyone, for she who surpassed all human
kind in beauty, Helen, abandoning her
husband—that best of
men—went sailing off to the shores of Troy and
never spent a thought on her child or loving
parents: when the goddess seduced her wits and
left her to wander,
she forgot them all, she could not remember
anything but longing, and lightly straytranslated from the ancient Greek by Bliss Carman
It was summer when I found you
In the meadow long ago,
And the golden vetch was growing
By the shore.
translated from the ancient Greek by Bliss Carman
O but my delicate lover,
Is she not fair as the moonlight?
Is she not supple and strong
For hurried passion?