Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Rome | | Rome Buried in Her Own Ruins | | Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645) |
| | Translated by Felicia Hemans
AMIDST these scenes, O pilgrim! seek’st thou Rome? | |
| Vain is thy search,—the pomp of Rome is fled; | |
| Her silent Aventine is glory’s tomb; | |
| Her walls, her shrines, but relics of the dead. | |
| That hill, where Cæsars dwelt in other days, | 5 |
| Forsaken mourns where once it towered sublime; | |
| Each mouldering medal now far less displays | |
| The triumphs won by Latium than by Time. | |
| Tiber alone survives,—the passing wave | |
| That bathed her towers now murmurs by her grave, | 10 |
| Wailing with plaintive sound her fallen fanes. | |
| Rome! of thine ancient grandeur all is passed, | |
| That seemed for years eternal framed to last; | |
| Naught but the wave—a fugitive—remains. | | | | |
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