| |
| ’TWAS in the crowded avenue; o’erhead | |
| Thundered the trains; below the pavement shook | |
| With quivering cables; everywhere the crush | |
| Of horses, wheels, and men eddied and swirled. | |
| A river of humanity swept by | 5 |
| With faces hard as ice. I stopped beside | |
| A little push-cart filled with southern fruits | |
| And dickered with the huckster, “Three for five?” | |
| “No, two,” in broken English. There we stood— | |
| He shabby, stooping, wolfish, all intent | 10 |
| Upon a penny, I to him no more | |
| Than just another stranger from the throng | |
| Trampling each other in this fierce new world. | |
| |
| Then looking in his sordid eyes I said, | |
| Using the tongue of Plato and of Paul, | 15 |
| “Art thou a Roman?” Never magic word | |
| Of wizard or enchanter wrought more sure. | |
| The man erect, transfigured, eyes on fire, | |
| Lips parted, breath drawn fast, thrust in my hands | |
| His double handful. Huckster? No, a king! | 20 |
| “Could I speak Roman? Did I share it all— | |
| The memories, the pride, the grief, the hope?” | |
| Then welcome to the best of all he had. | |
| |
| Wouldst know, self-glorified American, | |
| The name that sums the grandest heritage | 25 |
| Race ever owned? ’Tis “Roman” spoke in Greek; | |
| ROMAIOS they call it. Constantine the Great, | |
| Fixed with new capital where East meets West, | |
| Brought Rome’s imperial law, the Cross of Christ, | |
| The art and tongue of Greece—the whole world’s best; | 30 |
| And in that fairest spot new Christian Rome | |
| Reigned queen a thousand years, until the Turk | |
| Fell like a blight, and darkness shrouded all. | |
| |
| But still that name lives in the exiles’ dreams, | |
| All glories, Christian, Hebrew, Roman, Greek, | 35 |
| Blend in that one unequalled Romaios. | |
| Abraham, Moses, Homer, Phidias, | |
| Cæsar, Paul, Chrysostom, Justinian, | |
| Bozzaris, Ypsilanti, Byron, all | |
| Are his. O blessed America, these men | 40 |
| That come in rags, bring jewels in their hearts | |
| To shine resplendent in thy future’s crown! | |
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