Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | The Barbary States: Carthage | | Marius | | Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880) |
| | Suggested by a Painting by Vanderlyn, of Marius Seated among the Ruins of Carthage |
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PILLARS are fallen at thy feet, | |
| Fanes quiver in the air, | |
| A prostrate city is thy seat, | |
| And thou alone art there. | |
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| No change comes o’er thy noble brow, | 5 |
| Though ruin is around thee; | |
| Thine eye-beam burns as proudly now, | |
| As when the laurel crowned thee. | |
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| It cannot bend thy lofty soul, | |
| Though friends and fame depart; | 10 |
| The car of fate may o’er thee roll, | |
| Nor crush thy Roman heart. | |
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| And Genius hath electric power, | |
| Which earth can never tame; | |
| Bright suns may scorch, and dark clouds lower, | 15 |
| Its flash is still the same. | |
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| The dreams we loved in early life | |
| May melt like mist away; | |
| High thoughts may seem, mid passion’s strife, | |
| Like Carthage in decay. | 20 |
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| And proud hopes in the human heart | |
| May be to ruin hurled, | |
| Like mouldering monuments of art | |
| Heaped on a sleeping world. | |
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| Yet there is something will not die, | 25 |
| Where life hath once been fair; | |
| Some towering thoughts still rear on high, | |
| Some Roman lingers there! | | | |
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