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55
THE TWO RUINS.
A sea of moonlight.
And in the sea an isle
Black, rugged, tempest-torn, vast:
O mighty Colosseum
More grand in this thy ruin
Than when proud Caesar smiled, and all thy walls
Rang with tumultuous acclaim,
While round thy dark foundations moaned
A wind of alien pain.
Terrible thou, O splendour of the Past.
How great the Rome that knew thee, and how dread.
Proud Roman, thine inheritance
Is as a deathless crown,
Yea, as a crown deep-set upon the brows,
The unfurrowed front of Time that is to be.
And in the sea an isle
Black, rugged, tempest-torn, vast:
O mighty Colosseum
More grand in this thy ruin
Than when proud Caesar smiled, and all thy walls
Rang with tumultuous acclaim,
While round thy dark foundations moaned
A wind of alien pain.
Terrible thou, O splendour of the Past.
How great the Rome that knew thee, and how dread.
Proud Roman, thine inheritance
Is as a deathless crown,
Yea, as a crown deep-set upon the brows,
The unfurrowed front of Time that is to be.
Hark, that low whine!
What crippled thing is this,
This spume of vice,
This wreck of high estate?
What ruin this that rises gaunt and wild:
Thou, thou art Rome, the Past,
The Rome that is!
Not here a venerable age,
But dull decay,
Slow death, and utter weariness.
Yon vast forlorn walls are but the frozen surf
Of tides long ages ebbed:
In thee Ruin is, in thee and such as thee.
What crippled thing is this,
This spume of vice,
This wreck of high estate?
What ruin this that rises gaunt and wild:
56
The Rome that is!
Not here a venerable age,
But dull decay,
Slow death, and utter weariness.
Yon vast forlorn walls are but the frozen surf
Of tides long ages ebbed:
In thee Ruin is, in thee and such as thee.
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