Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DREAMS OF LIFE: 2, by TIMOTHY THOMAS FORTUNE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DREAMS OF LIFE: 2, by                    
First Line: Then caesar took the world's command
Last Line: On plea of wisdom and of might.


Then Caesar took the world's command,
And savage millions cut he down!
E'en mighty Pompey, great and grand,
Fell like the fresh green grass, new mown!

And Rome, Imperial Rome! the Fates
Resigned to his corrupt embrace!
And all of Rome's dependent states
Implored the boon of Caesar's grace!

He who had conquered from the Nile
To where the Rhone and Thames stray,
Who basked in beauty's fickle smile
And thought supreme to end his day --

The master of the world was slain
In the swift movement of the eye;
In torture that subdued e'en pain
He went to judgment in the sky!

His grasp of power the world in thrall
As adamantine chains did hold;
No arm was raised to stay his fall --
And treason triumphed, treason bold!

The mind grows faint the blood to view
That selfish man has spilt -- for what?
To dull his hate, or chain renew
That binds the helot to his lot!

That mad ambition may o'erleap
The bounds of Reason and of Right,
Or in cursed chains doomed millions keep
On plea of Wisdom and of Might.





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