Explore "Bacchus is Gone" by Hervey Allen on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
_Bacchus is gone_!
I saw him leave the shore / Upon a moonless time, / _And he is gone -- is gone -- _ / Forevermore.
I saw the satyrs and the bacchanals -- / _Bacchus is gone -- is gone -- _ / With smoking torches as at funerals / Light him across the sea at dawn.
I saw the whimpering pards / Where he had passed -- / _Bacchus is gone -- is gone -- _ / Sniff to the water's edge, / Where purple stained, his footprints led -- / I heard the Goat-foot whisper in the hedge, / "_Bacchus is dead -- is dead,_"
And go aghast, / Snapping the myrtle branches as he fled.
_Bacchus is gone! _ / And with him dancing Folly -- / _Bacchus is dead -- is dead -- _ / Oh, Melancholy!
No! No! He is not dead; he has but fled / To kindlier lands he knew in days before / Men snatched the purple roses from his head.
He does but wanton by some liberal shore -- / Sun kissed -- / And wreathed with vine leaves as of old, / With spotted beasts and maidens by his car, / And sound of timbrels like a story told / Of youth and love and blood and wine and war.