| |
| SAINTS and Cæsars are here, | |
| Bishops of Rome and the world, | |
| Rulers by love and by fear:— | |
| Those who in purple and gold | |
| Pranked and lorded it here; | 5 |
| Those who in sackcloth and shame | |
| Elected their limbs to enfold, | |
| Scornful of pleasure and fame: | |
| —Ah, they had their reward! | |
| There is something else that I seek | 10 |
| On the flowery sward, | |
| By the pile of Cestius, here! | |
| |
| Is it but two stones like the rest | |
| Fondly preserving a name | |
| Elsewhere unheeded of fame, | 15 |
| Set here by love, and left | |
| To gather gray, like the rest? | |
| —Psha! ’T is the fate of man! | |
| We are wretched, we are bereft | |
| Of all that gave life its plan, | 20 |
| The sunbeam and treasure of yore; | |
| We lay it in earth and are gone; | |
| Then, as before, | |
| We laugh and forget, like the rest. | |
| |
| A transient name on the stone, | 25 |
| A transient love in the heart; | |
| We have our day and are gone:— | |
| —But it is not so with these! | |
| There is life and love in the stone;— | |
| Names of beauty and light | 30 |
| Over all lands and seas | |
| They have gone forth in their might: | |
| Warmer and higher beats | |
| The general heart at the words | |
| Shelley and Keats:— | 35 |
| There is life and love in the stone! | |
| |
| He with the gleaming eyes | |
| And glances gentle and wild, | |
| The angel eternal child; | |
| His heart could not throb like ours, | 40 |
| He could not see with our eyes | |
| Dimmed with the dulness of earth, | |
| Blind with the bondage of hours; | |
| Yet none with diviner mirth | |
| Hailed what was noble and sweet: | 45 |
| The blood-tracked journey of life, | |
| The way-sore feet | |
| None have watched with more human eyes. | |
| |
| And he who went first to the tomb— | |
| Rejoice, great souls of the dead! | 50 |
| For none in that earlier Rome | |
| Took a bolder and lordlier heart | |
| To the all-receiving tomb: | |
| No richer, more equable eye, | |
| No tongue of more musical art | 55 |
| Conversed with the Gods on high, | |
| Among all the minstrels who made | |
| Sweetness ’tween Etna and Alp: | |
| Nor was any laid | |
| With such music and tears in the tomb. | 60 |
| |
| —What seek ye, my comrades at Rome? | |
| To see and be seen at the gay | |
| Meet on the Appian Way, | |
| Or within the tall palace at eve | |
| To dance out your season at Rome? | 65 |
| To muse on the giants of old, | |
| In the Forum at twilight to grieve? | |
| It is more that these ruins enfold! | |
| Warmer and higher beats | |
| The Englishman’s heart at the words, | 70 |
| Shelley and Keats! | |
| And here is the heart of our Rome. | |
| |
