TO A POET GOING TO ROME: 1 by CHARLES WILLIAMS

IF you shall meet them, as you doubtless may,
Wandering some street within their heavenly Rome,
So much like this, but lacking Peter's dome
And all the smaller churches, and they say:
'Who now among the English wears the bay?
Within whose mind now keeps our Muse her home?
Or has the world so triumphed she may come
Into no thoughts reserved her for long stay?'

Then (our best embassy) tell them: 'There is
No age, but yours and Shakespeare's, such as this,
Where half a hundred are with laurel crowned.
Take, of the older, these first on my tongue,
Yeats, Hardy, Bridges; of the mighty young,
De la Mare, Abercrombie, most renowned.'

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...