I READ the classic book -- and raised mine eye To where, with sun-tipped spears, went by A great, armed host. The splendid roads were thronged With all the trappings that to war belonged. Next, I beheld how figures stately, slow, With filleted calm brows drew past; and lo, A temple white, within whose pillared porch I saw the sacred fires leap like a torch. While sharp against the saffron-colored sea (How it comes back to musing memory!) Swayed to and fro the swollen tides of folk, The hewers and the builders at their work. High from a hill, swept sounds of song that fell Upon the city like a miracle; The feet of heroes, like as rhyme to rhyme, Fell into harmony and kept march time. * * * * * * * * * All this I saw. Still rule the spirit these Enshrined shapes from out the centuries; Still cry along a sky that seems their home The conquering eagles of imperial Rome! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...YOUNG SAMMY'S FIRST WILD OATS by GEORGE SANTAYANA FACADE: 2. THE BAT by EDITH SITWELL ODE TO TOBACCO by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY OF A BAD SINGER; EPIGRAM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON by HENRY LYNDEN FLASH SONNET: 17. TO SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER by JOHN MILTON |