Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.

Introductory to Chinese Empire

The Wall of China

By Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)

Translated by Edward, Lord Lytton

THERE standeth a building which ages have tried,

It is not a dwelling, it is not a fane;

A hundred days round it the rider may ride,

And ride, if to compass its measure, in vain.

And years told in hundreds against it have striven,

By time never sapped, and by storm never bowed,

Still sublimely it stands in the rainbow of heaven,

Reaching now to the ocean and now to the cloud.

Not constructed a boast to vainglory to yield,

It serves as defender, to save and to shield;

And nowhere its like on the earth is surveyed;

And yet by the labors of man it was made!