The Works of Tennyson The Eversley Edition: Annotated by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Edited by Hallam, Lord Tennyson |
 | I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| VII. |
| V. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| VIII. |
 | IX. |
|
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
|
|
|
 | The Works of Tennyson |  |
315
TO VIRGIL.
I
Roman Virgil, thou that singestIlion's lofty temples robed in fire,
Ilion falling, Rome arising,
wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre;
II
Landscape-lover, lord of languagemore than he that sang the Works and Days,
All the chosen coin of fancy
flashing out from many a golden phrase;
III
Thou that singest wheat and woodland,tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd;
316
often flowering in a lonely word;
IV
Poet of the happy Tityruspiping underneath his beechen bowers;
Poet of the poet-satyr
whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;
V
Chanter of the Pollio, gloryingin the blissful years again to be,
Summers of the snakeless meadow,
unlaborious earth and oarless sea;
VI
Thou that seëst UniversalNature moved by Universal Mind;
Thou majestic in thy sadness
at the doubtful doom of human kind;
VII
Light among the vanish'd ages;star that gildest yet this phantom shore;
317
kings and realms that pass to rise no more;
VIII
Now thy Forum roars no longer,fallen every purple Cæsar's dome—
Tho' thine ocean-roll of rhythm
sound for ever of Imperial Rome—
IX
Now the Rome of slaves hath perish'd,and the Rome of freemen holds her place,
I, from out the Northern Island
sunder'd once from all the human race,
X
I salute thee, Mantovano,I that loved thee since my day began,
Wielder of the stateliest measure
ever moulded by the lips of man.
| The Works of Tennyson | |