Against his middle arm, not many a mile In the offing of black water is the isle Named of Achilles, or as Leukê known, Which tender Thetis, counselling alone With her wise sire beneath the ocean-wave, Unto her child’s departed spirit gave, Where he might still his love and fame enjoy, Through the vain Danaan cause fordone at Troy. Thither Achilles passed, and long fulfill’d His earthly lot, as the high gods had will’d, Far from the rivalries of men, from strife, From arms, from woman’s love and toil of life. Now of his lone abode I will unfold What there I saw, or was by others told. There is in truth a temple on the isle; Therein a wooden statue of rude style And workmanship antique with helm of lead: Else all is desert, uninhabited; Only a few goats browse the wind-swept rocks, And oft the stragglers of their starving flocks Are caught and sacrificed by whomsoe’er, Whoever of chance or purpose hither fare: About the fence lie strewn their bleaching bones. But in the temple jewels and precious stones, Upheapt with golden rings and vials lie, Thankofferings to Achilles, and thereby, Written or scratch’d upon the walls in view, Inscriptions, with the givers’ names thereto, Some in Romaic character, some Greek, As each man in the tongue that he might speak Wrote verse of praise, or prayer for good to come, To Achilles most, but to Patroclus some; For those who strongly would Achilles move Approach him by the pathway of his love. Thousands of birds frequent the sheltering shrine, The dippers and the swimmers of the brine, Sea-mew and gull and diving cormorant, Fishers that on the high cliff make their haunt Sheer inaccessible, and sun themselves Huddled arow upon the narrow shelves:— And surely no like wonder ere hath been As that such birds should keep the temple clean; But thus they do: at earliest dawn of day They flock to sea and in the waters play, And when they well have wet their plumage light, Back to the sanctuary they take flight Splashing the walls and columns with fresh brine, Till all the stone doth fairly drip and shine, When off again they skim asea for more And soon returning sprinkle steps and floor, And sweep all cleanly with their wide-spread wings.