 | Poems by a Painter |  |
155
THE APOLLO OF THE VATICAN.
God of the golden locks and beamy brow!Embodied splendour! Phœbus-Apollo! Thou,
Time-born, but heir of immortality!
Still stand'st thou radiant—like a mighty star,
Darting supernal effluence afar
O'er the slow stream of change, that, rolling by,
Hath swept from earth Religions, Peoples, Crowns—
Like vapour down into the silent sea
Of grey Oblivion—leaving uninjured Thee,
Its marble conqueror! Still that proud lip frowns
In scornful triumph o'er thy prostrate foe,
The earth-spawned Python, Mutability!
Still from that stern, indomitable eye
The arrowy lightnings flash that laid the reptile low.
Rome, 1861.
| Poems by a Painter | |