Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Rome | | Origin of Rome | | John Dyer (1700?–1758) |
| | (From The Ruins of Rome)
SEE’ST thou yon fane? even now incessant Time | |
| Sweeps her low mouldering marbles to the dust; | |
| And Phœbus’ temple, nodding with its woods, | |
| Threatens huge ruin o’er the small rotund. | |
| ’T was there, beneath a fig-tree’s umbrage broad, | 5 |
| The astonished swains with reverend awe beheld | |
| Thee, O Quirinus, and thy brother-twin, | |
| Pressing the teat within a monster’s grasp | |
| Sportive; while oft the gaunt and rugged wolf | |
| Turned her stretched neck, and formed your tender limbs: | 10 |
| So taught of Jove, even the fell savage fed | |
| Your sacred infancies, your virtues, toils, | |
| The conquests, glories, of the Ausonian state, | |
| Wrapped in their secret seeds. Each kindred soul, | |
| Robust and stout, ye grapple to your hearts, | 15 |
| And little Rome appears. Her cots arise, | |
| Green twigs of osier weave the slender walls, | |
| Green rushes spread the roofs; and here and there | |
| Opens beneath the rock the gloomy cave. | |
| Elate with joy Etruscan Tiber views | 20 |
| Her spreading scenes enamelling his waves, | |
| Her huts and hollow dells, and flocks and herds, | |
| And gathering swains; and rolls his yellow car | |
| To Neptune’s court with more majestic train. | | | | |
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