CXLIV. But when the rising moon begins to climb Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there; Heroes have trod this spot-'tis on their dust ye tread. CXLV. "While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; "When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall ; "And when Rome falls-the World." From our own land In Saxon times, which we are wont to call On their foundations, and unalter'd all; Rome and her Ruin past Redemption's skill, The World, the same wide den-of thieves, or what ye will. CXLVI. Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime Shrine of all saints and temple of all gods, From Jove to Jesus-spared and blest by time; Arch, empire, each thing round thee, and man plods His way through thorns to ashes-glorious dome! Shalt thou not last? Time's scythe and tyrant's rods Shiver upon thee-sanctuary and home Of art and piety-Pantheon !-pride of Rome! Relic of nobler days, and noblest arts! Despoil'd yet perfect, with thy circle spreads A holiness appealing to all hearts To art a model; and to him who treads Rome for the sake of ages, Glory sheds Her light through thy sole aperture; to those Who worship, here are altars for their beads; And they who feel for genius may repose Their eyes on honour'd forms, whose busts around them close. CXLVIII. There is a dungeon, in whose dim drear light The blood is nectar :-but what doth she there, CXLIX. Full swells the deep pure fountain of young life, Where on the heart and from the heart we took Blest into mother, in the innocent look, No pain and small suspense, a joy perceives Man knows not, when from out its cradled nook She sees her little bud put forth its leaves What may the fruit be yet? I know not-Cain was Eve's. CL. But here youth offers to old age the food, Of health and holy feeling can provide Great Nature's Nile, whose deep stream rises higher Drink, drink and live, old man! Heaven's realm holds no such tide. CLI. The starry fable of the milky way Has not thy story's purity; it is A constellation of a sweeter ray, Where sparkle distant worlds :-Oh, holiest nurse! CLII. Turn to the mole which Hadrian rear'd on high, Imperial mimic of old Egypt's piles, Colossal copyist of deformity, Whose travell'd phantasy from the far Nile's Enormous model, doom'd the artist's toils To build for giants, and for his vain earth, His shrunken ashes, raise this dome: How smiles The gazer's eye with philosophic mirth, To view the huge design which sprung from such a birth! CLIII. But lo! the dome-the vast and wondrous dome, To which Diana's marvel was a cell Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb ! I have beheld the Ephesian's miracle ;— Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwell I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have survey'd Its sanctuary the while the usurping Moslem pray'd; CLIV. But thou, of temples old, or altars new, Of earthly structures, in his honour piled, Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty, Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty all are aisled In this eternal ark of worship undefiled. |