Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI. 1876–79. | | | | Switzerland: Simplon, the Mountain | | Simplon Pass | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | The Column Intended by Buonaparte for a Triumphal Edifice in Milan, now Lying by the Wayside in the Simplon Pass |
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AMBITION, following down this far-famed slope | |
| Her pioneer, the snow-dissolving sun, | |
| While clarions prate of kingdoms to be won, | |
| Perchance, in future ages, here may stop; | |
| Taught to mistrust her flattering horoscope | 5 |
| By admonition from this prostrate stone! | |
| Memento uninscribed of pride o’erthrown; | |
| Vanity’s hieroglyphic; a choice trope | |
| In Fortune’s rhetoric. Daughter of the rock, | |
| Rest where thy course was stayed by Power Divine! | 10 |
| The soul transported sees, from hint of thine, | |
| Crimes which the great Avenger’s hand provoke, | |
| Hears combats whistling o’er the ensanguined heath: | |
| What groans! what shrieks! what quietness in death! | | | |
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