Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Rome, Churches of | | The Pantheon | | Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) |
| | (From Amours de Voyage)
NO, great Dome of Agrippa, thou art not Christian! canst not, | |
| Strip and replaster and daub and do what they will with thee, be so! | |
| Here underneath the great porch of colossal Corinthian columns, | |
| Here as I walk, do I dream of the Christian belfries above them? | |
| Or on a bench as I sit and abide for long hours, till thy whole vast | 5 |
| Round grows dim as in dreams to my eyes, I repeople thy niches, | |
| Not with the martyrs and saints and confessors add virgins and children, | |
| But with the mightier forms of an older, austerer worship; | |
And I recite to myself, how
Eager for battle here | |
| Stood Vulcan, here matronal Juno, | 10 |
| And with the bow to his shoulder faithful | |
| He who with pure dew laveth of Castaly | |
| His flowing locks, who holdeth of Lycia | |
| The oak forest and the wood that bore him, | |
| Delos’ and Patara’s own Apollo. | 15 | | | |
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