Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia: Alexandria | | Pompey’s Pillar | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
PILLAR of Pompey! gazing o’er the sea, | |
| In solemn pride, and mournful majesty! | |
| When on thy graceful shaft, and towering head, | |
| In quivering crimson, day’s last beams are shed, | |
| Thou look’st a thing some spell with life supplies, | 5 |
| Or a rich flame ascending to the skies. | |
| Ah! well the ill-starred memory dost thou keep | |
| Of Rome’s famed son, who perished on yon deep: | |
| Dark was the hour brave Pompey sought this strand, | |
| Flying from foes to die by Treachery’s hand. | 10 |
| As fell the stroke on him she could not save, | |
| Cornelia’s shriek was heard along the wave, | |
| And viewless nymphs, that rode the ocean gale, | |
| Felt for her woe, and answered to her wail. | |
| He who once vanquished kings, gave crowns away, | 15 |
| Alone, unhonored, on the sea-beach lay, | |
| Till, wrung by grief, an old man, drawing near, | |
| Gazed on the hero’s corpse with many a tear, | |
| And raised a funeral pile, and scattered flowers, | |
| Praying his soul might enter heavenly bowers: | 20 |
| Flame, dust, a darksome pit, not tomb of state; | |
| So set the star of him men named the Great. | | | | |
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