THE COLISEUM
by: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
- ype of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary
- Of lofty contemplation left to Time
- By buried centuries of pomp and power!
- At lengthat lengthafter so many days
- Of weary pilgrimage and burning thirst,
- (Thirst for the springs of lore that in thee lie,)
- I kneel, an altered and an humble man,
- Amid thy shadows, and so drink within
- My very soul thy grandeur, gloom, and glory!
- Vastness! and Age! and Memories of Eld!
- Silence! and Desolation! and dim Night!
- I feel ye nowI feel ye in your strength
- O spells more sure than e'er Judæan king
- Taught in the gardens of Gethsemane!
- O charms more potent than the rapt Chaldee
- Ever drew down from out the quiet stars!
- Here, where a hero fell, a column falls!
- Here, where the mimic eagle glared in gold,
- A midnight vigil holds the swarthy bat!
- Here, where the dames of Rome their gilded hair
- Waved to the wind, now wave the reed and thistle!
- Here, where on golden throne the monarch lolled,
- Glides, spectre-like, unto his marble home,
- Lit by the wan light of the horned moon,
- The swift and silent lizard of the stones!
- But stay! these wallsthese ivy-clad arcades
- These mouldering plinthsthese sad and blackened shafts
- These vague entablaturesthis crumbling frieze
- These shattered cornicesthis wreckthis ruin
- These stonesalas! these gray stonesare they all
- All of the famed, and the colossal left
- By the corrosive Hours to Fate and me?
- "Not all"the Echoes answer me"not all!
- Prophetic sounds and loud, arise forever
- From us, and from all Ruin, unto the wise,
- As melody from Memnon to the Sun.
- We rule the hearts of mightiest menwe rule
- With a despotic sway all giant minds.
- We are not impotentwe pallid stones.
- Not all our power is gonenot all our fame
- Not all the magic of our high renown
- Not all the wonder that encircles us
- Not all the mysteries that in us lie
- Not all the memories that hang upon
- And cling around about us as a garment,
- Clothing us in a robe of more than glory."
MORE
POEMS BY EDGAR ALLAN POE |
|