| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Rome | | By Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645) |
| | Translated by Felicia Hemans
AMID 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 sounds, her fallen fanes. | |
| Rome! of thine ancient grandeur all is past, | |
| That seemed for years eternal framed to last;— | |
| Nought but the wave, a fugitive, remains. | | | | |
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