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* * * * * THAT past is here; where old Tiburtus found | |
| Mere mountain-brow, and fenced with walls around, | |
| And for his wearied Argives reared a home, | |
| Long ere yon seven proud hills had dreamed of Rome. | |
| ’T is here, amid these patriarch olive-trees, | 5 |
| Which Flaccus saw, or ancestry of these; | |
| Oft musing, as he slowly strayed him past, | |
| How here his quiet age should close at last. | |
| And here behold them still! Like ancient seers | |
| They stand; the dwellers of a thousand years, | 10 |
| Deep-furrowed, strangely crooked, and ashy-gray, | |
| As ghost might gleam beneath the touch of day. | |
| All strangely perforate, too; with rounded eyes, | |
| That ever scan the traveller as he hies: | |
| Fit guardians of the spot they seem to be, | 15 |
| With centuries seen, and centuries yet to see. | |
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| Who treads this pallid grove, by moonlight pale, | |
| Might half believe the peasant’s spectre tale | |
| Of Latian heroes old, that come to glide | |
| Along these silent paths at even-tide; | 20 |
| Or Sibyl, wan with ghastly prophecy, | |
| From her near fane, as whilom, wandering by. | |
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| But morning, now, and sunny vines are here, | |
| From tree to tree gay-gadding without fear; | |
| Or else in verdant rope their fibres string, | 25 |
| As if to tempt the little Loves to swing; | |
| Or, tricking silvery head and wrinkled stem | |
| With tendril-curl or leafy diadem; | |
| A sportive war of graceful contrast wage, | |
| The Grave and Gay, green Youth and hoary Age. | 30 |
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| Hence we may feel resounding Anio’s shock, | |
| As his full river thunders from his rock. | |
| Yet mark! meanwhile adown its own small dell | |
| How falls or winds each little cascatelle. | |
| With no rude sound, with no impetuous rush, | 35 |
| But blandly, fondly, or by bank or bush, | |
| Or floats in air, as when mild mermaid frees | |
| (Or so they feign) her tresses to the breeze, | |
| And, careless for a while of coral bower, | |
| Basks on the sunny sands till noontide’s scorching hour. * * * * * | 40 |
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