Greece
by Oscar Wilde

Irish wit, poet and dramatist. Probably best known for his play; The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), other plays include Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (1895), Salome (in French and first performed 1896) and his first play Vera (first performed 1883). He also wrote fairy stories The Happy Prince (1888) and The House of Pomegranates (1891), short stories Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, and other stories (1891), his only novel The Picture of Dorian Grey (1891). Other works include a collection of essays Intentions (1891), and The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898). Wilde was the key figure in the late 19th century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art's sake.

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Greece
by Oscar Wilde

The sea was sapphire coloured, and the sky
Burned like a heated opal through the air;
We hoisted sail; the wind was blowing fair
For the blue lands that to the eastward lie.
From the steep prow I marked with quickening eye
Zakynthos, every olive grove and creek,
Ithaca's cliff, Lycaon's snowy peak,
And all the flower-strewn hills of Arcady.
The flapping of the sail against the mast,
The ripple of the water on the side,
The ripple of girls' laughter at the stern,
The only sounds: -when 'gan the West to burn,
And a red sun upon the seas to ride,
I stood upon the soil of Greece at last!

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Greece by Oscar Wilde