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(From The Prophecy of Dante)
YE shall be taught by ruin to revive | |
| The Grecian forms at least from their decay, | |
| And Roman souls at last again shall live | |
| In Roman works wrought by Italian hands, | |
| And temples, loftier than the old temples, give | 5 |
| New wonders to the world; and while still stands | |
| The austere Pantheon, into heaven shall soar | |
| A dome, its image, while the base expands | |
| Into a fane surpassing all before, | |
| Such as all flesh shall flock to kneel in: ne’er | 10 |
| Such sight hath been unfolded by a door | |
| As this, to which all nations shall repair, | |
| And lay their sins at this huge gate of heaven. | |
| And the bold architect unto whose care | |
| The daring charge to raise it shall be given, | 15 |
| Whom all arts shall acknowledge as their lord, | |
| Whether into the marble chaos driven | |
| His chisel bid the Hebrew, at whose word | |
| Israel left Egypt, stop the waves in stone, | |
| Or hues of hell be by his pencil poured | 20 |
| Over the damned before the judgment throne, | |
| Such as I saw them, such as all shall see, | |
| Or fanes be built of grandeur yet unknown, | |
| The stream of his great thoughts shall spring from me, | |
| The Ghibelline, who traversed the three realms | 25 |
| Which form the empire of eternity. | |
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