Charles Pelham Mulvany (1835-1885)

Text from A Century of Canadian Sonnets.



return to sonnet central return to canadian sonnets


"Troy was!"

Troy was! For lo, to other music now
Than in old days bade tower and temple rise,
A Troy new-built of fire to all the skies,
With flaming walls o'ertoppeth Ida's brow.
Troy was! Therein shall we no more behold
The wealth of youth that once made life so fair;
See heaven-born love our mortal vestures wear,
Or match with Helen's hair earth's paler gold.
Yet have we lived and battled not in vain;
When of that vanished day the tale is told,
If once within the hero-ranks enrolled,
We lived their higher life of heart and brain:
Though of a phantom beauty we were fain,
Though for a failing cause our hearts grew bold.