Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SIMPLON PASS, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH


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SIMPLON PASS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ambition, following down this far-famed slope
Last Line: What groans! What shrieks! What quietness in death!
Subject(s): Simplon (mountain), Switzerland; Soldiers


THE COLUMN INTENDED BY BUONAPARTE FOR A
TRIUMPHAL EDIFICE IN MILAN, NOW LYING BY THE
WAYSIDE IN THE SIMPLON PASS

AMBITION, following down this far-famed slope
Her pioneer, the snow-dissolving sun,
While clarions prate of kingdoms to be won,
Perchance, in future ages, here may stop;
Taught to mistrust her flattering horoscope
By admonition from this prostrate stone!
Memento uninscribed of pride o'erthrown;
Vanity's hieroglyphic; a choice trope
In Fortune's rhetoric. Daughter of the rock,
Rest where thy course was stayed by Power Divine!
The soul transported sees, from hint of thine,
Crimes which the great Avenger's hand provoke,
Hears combats whistling o'er the ensanguined heath:
What groans! what shrieks! what quietness in death!






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