 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere
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III.
THE PILLAR OF TRAJAN.
Degrading Art's augustest minist'rings
Yon Pillar soars with sculptured forms embost
Whose grace at that ambitious height is lost:
Lo! as the stony serpent twines its rings
Priests, coursers, heralds, warriors, slaves, and kings
Mingle, a tortuous mass confused and crost;
While Art, least honoured here where flattered most,
Deplores in vain her prostituted springs
By a fallen Angel at their source ill-stirred;
Unholy—thence unhealing! What is aid
Vouchsafed upon conditions that degrade
To one who her allegiance hath transferred?
O Attic Art brought low, that here dost stand
Full-fed, but hooded, on a tyrant's hand!
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere
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