Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Rome | | Rome | | Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) |
| | (From Italy)
I AM in Rome! Oft as the morning-ray | |
| Visits these eyes, waking at once I cry, | |
| Whence this excess of joy? What has befallen me? | |
| And from within a thrilling voice replies, | |
| Thou art in Rome! A thousand busy thoughts | 5 |
| Rush on my mind, a thousand images; | |
| And I spring up as girt to run a race! | |
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| Thou art in Rome! the city that so long | |
| Reigned absolute, the mistress of the world; | |
| The mighty vision that the prophets saw, | 10 |
| And trembled; that from nothing, from the least, | |
| The lowliest village (what but here and there | |
| A reed-roofed cabin by the river-side?) | |
| Grew into everything; and, year by year, | |
| Patiently, fearlessly, working her way | 15 |
| O’er brook and field, o’er continent and sea, | |
| Not like the merchant with his merchandise, | |
| Or traveller with staff and scrip exploring, | |
| But ever hand to hand and foot to foot, | |
| Through nations numberless in battle-array, | 20 |
| Each behind each, each, when the other fell, | |
| Up and in arms, at length subdued them all. | |
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| Thou art in Rome! the city, where the Gauls, | |
| Entering at sunrise through her open gates, | |
| And through her streets silent and desolate | 25 |
| Marching to slay, thought they saw gods, not men; | |
| The city, that, by temperance, fortitude, | |
| And love of glory, towered above the clouds, | |
| Then fell,—but, falling, kept the highest seat, | |
| And in her loneliness, her pomp of woe, | 30 |
| Where now she dwells, withdrawn into the wild, | |
| Still o’er the mind maintains, from age to age, | |
| Her empire undiminished. | | | | |
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