Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Rome, Ruins of | | Ruins of Rome | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
O ROME, whose steps of power were necks of kings! | |
| Europe, the earth, beneath her eagle’s wings, | |
| How, like a thing divine, she ruled the world! | |
| Her finger lifted, thrones to dust were hurled: | |
| High o’er her site the goddess Victory flew, | 5 |
| Mars waved his sword, and Fame her trumpet blew. | |
| What is she now?—a widow with bowed head, | |
| Her empire vanished, and her heroes dead; | |
| Weeping she sits, a lone and dying thing, | |
| Beneath the yew, and years no solace bring: | 10 |
| What is she now?—a dream of wonder past, | |
| A tombless skeleton, dark, lone, and vast, | |
| Whose heart of fire hath long, long ceased to burn, | |
| Whose ribs of marble e’en to dust return. | |
| Her shade alone, the ghost of ancient power, | 15 |
| Wanders in gloom o’er shrine and crumbling tower, | |
| Points with its shadowy hand to Cæsar’s hall, | |
| Sighs beneath arches tottering to their fall, | |
| And glides down stately Tiber’s rushing waves, | |
| That seem to wail through all their hoary caves. | 20 | | | |
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