| |
| THE DAYS of old, though time has rest | |
| The dazzling splendor which they cast; | |
| Yet many a remnant still is left | |
| To shadow forth the past. | |
| The warlike deed, the classic page, | 5 |
| The lyric torrent strong and free, | |
| Are lingering o’er the gloom of age, | |
| Like moonlight on the sea. | |
| |
| A thousand years have roll’d along, | |
| And blasted empires in their pride; | 10 |
| And witness’d scenes of crime and wrong, | |
| Till men by nations died. | |
| A thousand summer suns have shone | |
| Till earth grew bright beneath their sway, | |
| Since thou, untenanted, and lone, | 15 |
| Wert render’d to decay. | |
| |
| The moss tuft, and the ivy wreath, | |
| For ages clad thy fallen mould, | |
| And gladden’d in the spring’s soft breath; | |
| But they grew wan and old. | 20 |
| Now, desolation hath denied | |
| That even these shall veil thy gloom: | |
| And nature’s mantling beauty died | |
| In token of thy doom. | |
| |
| Alas, for the far years, when clad | 25 |
| With the bright vesture of thy prime, | |
| The proud towers made each wanderer glad, | |
| Who hail’d thy sunny clime. | |
| Alas, for the fond hope, and dream, | |
| And all that won thy children’s trust, | 30 |
| God cursed—and none may now redeem, | |
| Pale city of the dust! | |
| |
| How the dim visions throng the soul, | |
| When twilight broods upon thy waste; | |
| The clouds of wo from o’er thee roll, | 35 |
| Thy glory seems replaced. | |
| The stir of life is brightening round, | |
| Thy structures swell upon the eye, | |
| And mirth and revelry resound | |
| In triumph to the sky. | 40 |
| |
| But a stern moral may be read, | |
| By those who view thy lonely gloom: | |
| Oblivion’s pall alike is spread | |
| O’er slave, and lordly tomb. | |
| The sad, the gay, the old, and young, | 45 |
| The warrior’s strength, and beauty’s glow, | |
| Resolved to that from which they sprung | |
| Compose the dust below. | |
| |
