Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI. 1876–79.
Simplon Pass
By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)The Column Intended by Buonaparte for a Triumphal Edifice in Milan, now Lying by the Wayside in the Simplon Pass
A
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
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!
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!