Paul Valéry - Helen lyrics

Azure! It's me...from d**h's caves I return To hear waves break resoundingly ashore, And see the galleys in the dawnlight born Again out of the dark on golden oar. My solitary hands call back those lords Whose salty beards pleased my pure fingertips; I wept. They sang their shady wars and swords, And the great gulfs fled sternward of their ships. I hear deep conches all along the shores, The war-horns cadencing the swing of oars The rowers' chanty fettering the fray; And at heroic prows the gods grown grand With ancient smiles insulted by the spray, Reach out to me with carved, indulgent hand.