Metrical essays :: :: University of Virginia Library

“So fails, so languishes, grows dim and dies,
All that this world is proud of. From their spheres
The stars of human glory are cast down;
Perish the roses and the flowers of kings,
Princes and emperors, and the crowns and palms
Of all the mighty, withered and consumed!”
Wordsworth.

I

The sun is gilding the luxurious blue
Of the clear morning heav'ns—the dark leaf'd lime,
The date, the palm, and branch of every hue
Fruit hung or bloss'ming in the fragrant clime.
Above, the day is gleaming broad and high—
Beneath, the ruins of lost Carthage lie:—

II

The palaces—adorned capitals—

Who has not heard of the riches and magnificence of Carthage.— This ambitious city extended her conquests into Europe, invaded Sardinia, made herself mistress of a great part of Sicily, and reduced to her subjection almost the whole of Spain; and having sent out powerful colonies into all quarters, enjoyed the empire of the seas for more than six hundred years.

The golden lined temples—each high fane—
The deities of gold—majestic halls—
Throng'd sounding streets—and does there nought remain
Of all thy wealth, vain mistress of the sea,
Save these few stones to tell thy history?

III

Where are the young and brave—the ag'd and proud—
The powerless and the mighty—where the fair?
The beautiful of form—the noble brow'd—
Whose lips were murmuring on the summer air?—
I ask'd the skies what ravager had come—
The silent earth—the skies and earth were dumb.

IV

The lover mourns his tale of griefs—and dies;
The warrior finds death on the battle field!
A kingdom as a village wasted lies—
A monarch as a slave—alike all yield:
The pompous monument denies at last
Its feeble voice—that falls—is with the past.

V

Say what art thou—thus terrible in might,
Who giv'st the young heart bitterness and tears,
Destroying nations in thy clamorous flight,
Humbling the pride of youth, the strength of years?
Say what art thou—whose voice was with the birth
Of the new world—and cursed the infant earth?

VI

The streams flow'd by in loveliness and song,
The flowers sprang joyous into radiant life;
The beautiful of air and earth among
The woods rose up—the fields in sweets lay rife—
A paradise where angels might have ranged;—
Thou cam'st—earth trembled—the new world was changed.