 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
411
V. JUVENILE PATRIOTISM.
‘Great Rome our Capitol! Great Rome restored!’These cries are watchwords, warring each on each;
Two forms confused of unhistoric speech:
Rome never reigned, a single nation's lord:
Rome was at first not State, but bandit horde;
A State came next. O'er Carthage' yawning breach
Rome dashed through flame while still beyond her reach
Italian States the upstart's name abhorred.
Later, Rome's Empire rose: a subject earth
A world, not Nation, owned its sovereign sway:
It fell: at last Time's mystery came to birth:
Rome was the Church's seat; man's hope, his stay.
Great Rome made pigmy, Rome one nation's head,
Means this—‘The old Rome—the Christian—both are dead.’
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |