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When the early soft spring wind comes blowing

Over Rhodes and Samos and Miletus,

From the seven mouths of Nile to Lesbos,

Freighted with sea-odours and gold sunshine,

What news spreads among the island people 5

In the market-place of Mitylene,

Lending that unwonted stir of gladness

To the busy streets and thronging doorways?

Is it word from Ninus or Arbela,

Babylon the great, or Northern Imbros? 10

Have the laden galleons been sighted

Stoutly labouring up the sea from Tyre?

Nay, 'tis older news that foreign sailor

With the cheek of sea-tan stops to prattle

To the young fig-seller with her basket 15

And the breasts that bud beneath her tunic,

And I hear it in the rustling tree-tops.

All this passionate bright tender body

Quivers like a leaf the wind has shaken,

Now love wanders through the aisles of springtime. 20