WE walked where Victor Jove was shrined awhile, And passed to Livia's rich red mural show, Whence, thridding cave and Criptoportico, We gained Caligula's dissolving pile. And each ranked ruin tended to beguile The outer sense, and shape itself as though It wore its marble gleams, its pristine glow Of scenic frieze and pompous peristyle. When lo, swift hands, on strings nigh overhead, Began to melodize a waltz by Strauss: It stirred me as I stood, in Caesar's house, Raised the old routs Imperial lyres had led, And blended pulsing life with lives long done, Till Time seemed fiction, Past and Present one. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OLD MEN ON THE COURTHOUSE LAWN, MURRAY, KENTUCKY by JAMES GALVIN THE FIRST MOVIE by DAVID WAGONER TO THE VIRGINIAN VOYAGE [1611] by MICHAEL DRAYTON TO -- OCCASIONED BY HIS POEM ON THE SUN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD FRAGMENTS INTENDED FOR DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: LOVE IS WISER THAN AMBITION by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |