 | Stones from The Quarry |  |
ROME ANTIQUE.
When Rome to pieces fell, her mighty frameAnd bulk disrupt strewed half the hemisphere:
There, lay large limb, leg, arm, benumbed; and here
Hand, foot; yet mighty even in her name.
The head was sick; the heart, which glowed like flame,
And beat with restless pulsings and high cheer
Against the ribs o' the World, which pressed too near
And cramped its large ambition, went and came
As an asthmatic's! Like a corpse she lay—
A spirit then of other origin
“Possessed” her; souls, not bodies, claimed to sway;
The pride that apes humility its sin:
And with Christ's sacramental cup did play
And juggle; drunk oft on the wine within!
| Stones from The Quarry | |