-Binding, ever as he bade, Columns in this colonnade With arms wide open to embrace The entry of the human race To the breast of. . . what is it, yon building, Now I see it is no dream : It stands there and it does not seem; And wondered how those fountains play, Each to a musical water-tree, Whose blossoms drop, a glittering boon, Before my eyes, in the light of the moon, I, the sinner that speak to you, Was in Rome this night, and stood, and knew Both this and more! For see, for see, The dark is rent, mine eye is free To pierce the crust of the outer wall, Men in the chancel, body and nave, Men on the pillars' architrave, Men on the statues, men on the tombs With popes and kings in their porphyry wombs, All famishing in expectation Of the main-altar's consummation. For see, for see, the rapturous moment This earth in weakness, shame and pain, But the one God, all in all, King of kings, and Lord of lords, As His servant John received the words, "I died, and live for evermore! بح MEN AND WOMEN. LOVE AMONG THE RUINS. I. WHERE the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles On the solitary pastures where our sheep Tinkle homeward through the twilight, stray or stop II. Was the site once of a city great and gay, (So they say) Of our country's very capital, its prince Ages since Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far III. Now the country does not even boast a tree, As you see, To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills Intersect and give a name to, (else they run IV. Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires Up like fires O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall Bounding all, Made of marble, men might march on nor be prest, Twelve abreast. V. And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads Every vestige of the city, guessed alone, VI. Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe Long ago; Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame And that glory and that shame alike, the gold VII. Now, the single little turret that remains By the caper overrooted, by the gourd While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks Through the chinks— VIII. Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time Sprang sublime, And a burning ring all round, the chariots traced And the monarch and his minions and his dames IX. And I know, while thus the quiet-coloured eve To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece And the slopes and rills in undistinguished grey X. That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair In the turret, whence the charioteers caught soul When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb Till I come. XI. But he looked upon the city, every side, Far and wide, All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades' Colonnades, All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts, and then, All the men! |