Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Rome

Campo Marzio

By John Dyer (1700?–1758)

(From Ruins of Rome)

BEHOLD by Tiber’s flood, where modern Rome

Couches beneath the ruins: there of old

With arms and trophies gleamed the field of Mars:

There to their daily sports the noble youth

Rushed emulous; to fling the pointed lance;

To vault the steed; or with the kindling wheel

In dusty whirlwinds sweep the trembling goal;

Or, wrestling, cope with adverse swelling breasts,

Strong, grappling arms, closed heads, and distant feet;

Or clash the lifted gauntlets: there they formed

Their ardent virtues: lo, the bossy piles,

The proud triumphal arches; all their wars,

Their conquests, honors, in the sculptures live.