Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Pozzuoli | | The Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli | | Sir Henry Taylor (1800–1886) |
| | | THE STRIFE, the gushing blood, the mortal throe, | |
| With scenic horrors filled that belt below, | |
| And where the polished seats were round it raised, | |
| Worse spectacle! the pleased spectators gazed. | |
| Such were the pastimes of times past! O shame! | 5 |
| O infamy! that men who drew the breath | |
| Of freedom, and who shared the Roman name, | |
| Should so corrupt their sports with pain and death. | |
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| The pastimes of times past? And what are thine, | |
| Thou with thy gun or greyhound, rod and line? | 10 |
| Pain, terror, mortal agonies, that scare | |
| Thy heart in man, to brutes thou wilt not spare. | |
| Are theirs less sad and real? Pain in man | |
| Bears the high mission of the flail and fan. | |
| In brutes ’t is purely piteous. God’s command, | 15 |
| Submitting his mute creatures to our hand | |
| For life and death, thou shalt not dare to plead; | |
| He bade thee kill them not for sport, but need. | |
| Then backward if thou cast reproachful looks | |
| On sports bedarkening custom erst allowed, | 20 |
| Expect from coming ages like rebukes | |
| When day shall dawn on peacefuller woods and brooks, | |
| And clear from vales thou troublest custom’s cloud. | | | | |
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