Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | The Barbary States: Carthage | | Carthage | | Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) |
| | | LOW it lieth,—earth to earth,— | |
| All to which that earth gave birth: | |
| Palace, market-street, and fane; | |
| Dust that never asks in vain, | |
| Hath reclaimed its own again. | 5 |
| Dust, the wide world’s king. | |
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| Where are now the glorious hours | |
| Of a nation’s gathered powers? | |
| Like the setting of a star, | |
| In the fathomless afar; | 10 |
| Time’s eternal wing | |
| Hath around those ruins cast | |
| The dark presence of the past. | |
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| Mind, what art thou? dost thou not | |
| Hold the vast earth for thy lot? | 15 |
| In thy toil, how glorious! | |
| What dost thou achieve for us? | |
| Over all victorious | |
| Godlike thou dost seem. | |
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| But the perishing still lurks | 20 |
| In thy most immortal works; | |
| Thou dost build thy home on sand, | |
| And the palace-girdled strand | |
| Fadeth like a dream. | |
| Thy great victories only show | 25 |
| All is nothingness below. | | | | |
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