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And up the steep barbarian monarchs ride, Where the car climbed the Capitol; far and wide Temple and tower went down, nor left a site. Chaos of ruins! who shall trace the void,

O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light, And say, "Here was, or is," where all is doubly night?

The double night of ages, and of her, Night's daughter, Ignorance, hath wrapt, and wrap

All round us; we but feel our way to err: The ocean hath its chart, the stars their map, And knowledge spreads them on her ample lap; But Rome is as the desert, where we steer Stumbling o'er recollections; now we clap Our hands, and cry, "Eureka!" it is clear,— When but some false mirage of ruin rises near.

Alas, the lofty city! and alas,

The trebly hundred triumphs! and the day When Brutus made the dagger's edge surpass The conqueror's sword in bearing fame away! Alas for Tully's voice and Virgil's lay

And Livy's pictured page! But these shall be Her resurrection; all beside-decay.

Alas for Earth, for never shall we see

That brightness in her eye she bore when Rome LORD BYRON.

was free!

ROME

"If ever I in Rome should dwell,—
Rome, the desired of all my heart,-
Amidst that world loved long and well,
The infinite world of ancient art;

"And there, by graves so dear to fame,
A dreaming poet, cast my lot;
What voice within would whisper shame,
Were England and her needs forgot!"

So to myself, with museful mouth,

I said long since, the while I paced,
With heart that trembled towards the south,
Through London's coiled and stony waste.

How doubly dreary seemed the smoke,
The sunless noon, the starless even,
When o'er my dream a vision broke,—
Italy! or the courts of Heaven!

Now, walking on this Pincian Hill,
And watching where the day declines
(Gilding the Cross of Peter still)

By Monte Mario's fringe of pines,

Almost, I think, the heart might grow
Forgetful of its earlier ties,

And all its life-blood learn to flow

Familiar with Italian skies.

Not with the love of brain or soul,

But with that fiery strength we use
In leaning towards the strong control
Of what we must, not what we choose.

As mother for child, as wife for spouse,
As one long exiled yearns for home,
As sinner for the Heavenly House,

So yearned, so loved I thee, O Rome!

Now I have seen thee,-seen the plains,

The desolate plains where thou dost lie; Where many a rock-built tomb complains Of some great name or race gone by,

And past the walls that round thee sweep
Have daily ridden,-walls sublime!
Which girdle in thy power, and keep
Inviolate from the hands of Time.

Just touched and softened by decay,
Each gate some glorious year recalls;
Kings! Consuls! Emperors! Saints were they
Who mile by mile linked walls to walls.

All ancient cities, though great they be
(And London counts by tens of tens),
Seem pygmy towns compared to thee;

While Lincoln, throned amidst her fens,

And York upon her meadow-side

(A thousand milestones on her road), Are footprints, just to show the stride With which the giant Cæsar strode!

Yet here, where Cæsar lies in state,
Amidst the cypress and the rose,
A lovelier mountain mourns his fate,
A nobler river swiftlier flows.

O starlit streets of ancient Rome,
Baptized in blood of Christian men!
Happy the hearts that call ye home,
And feet that toward ye turn again!

I oft in dreams shall seem to see

Hills where the olive and the vine Fall rippling down to meet the sea; Or underneath the branching pine

Shall watch the storm-clouds sweeping by,

Down from the Alban Mount in swirls,

And, blackening all the vaulted sky,

Rush tangling through our sculptor's curls.

Ah! not too distant fall that day
When I, a pilgrim far from home,
Shall hear upon the Aurelian Way,
"Allons, postillon, vite! à Rome."

BESSIE RAYNER PARKES.

DREAMS IN ROME

WHAT is it that sings a sleepy tune in

sleepy tune in my head? Some faint old unforgotten moon that is dead? I will arise, for the dreams are about my bed.

O is it in vain, is it in vain I have come?

Dark was the road in coming, and white the foam. Is there no rest for me here? are there dreams in Rome?

ARTHUR SYMONS.

ROMA

RIPE hours there be that do anticipate

The heritage of death, and bid us see,
As from the vantage of eternity,

The shadow-symbols of historic fate.

Swift through the gloom each mournful chariot rolls,

Dim shapes of empire urge the flying steeds,
Featured with man's irrevocable deeds,

Robed with the changeful passions of men's souls.

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