Read "Winter at Delphi" by Willa Cather online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Cold are the stars of the night, / Wild is the tempest crying, / Fast through the velvet dark / Little white flakes are flying. / Still is the House of Song. / But the fire on the hearth is burning; / And the lamps are trimmed, and the cup / Is full for his day of returning. / His watchers are fallen asleep, / They wait but his call to follow, / Ay, to the ends of the earth -- / But Apollo, the god, Apollo?
Sick is the heart in my breast, / Mine eyes are blinded with weeping; / The god who never comes back, / The watch that forever is keeping. / Service of gods is hard; / Deep lies the snow on my pillow. / For him the laurel and song, / Weeping for me and the willow: / Empty my arms and cold / As the nest forgot of the swallow; / Birds will come back with the spring, -- / But Apollo, the god, Apollo?
Hope will come back with the spring, / Joy with the lark's returning; / Love must awake betimes, / When crocus buds are a-burning. / Hawthorns will follow the snow, / The robin his tryst be keeping; / Winds will blow in the May, / Waking the pulses a-sleeping. / Snowdrops will whiten the hills, / Violets hide in the hollow: / Pan will be drunken and rage -- / But Apollo, the god, Apollo?