Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ROME. BUILDING A NEW STREET IN THE ANCIENT QUARTER, by THOMAS HARDY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ROME. BUILDING A NEW STREET IN THE ANCIENT QUARTER, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: These umbered cliffs and gnarls of masonry
Last Line: Once shamed all such in power of pier and groin.
Subject(s): Rome, Italy


THESE umbered cliffs and gnarls of masonry
Outskeleton Time's central city, Rome;
Whereof each arch, entablature, and dome
Lies bare in all its gaunt anatomy.

And cracking frieze and rotten metope
Express, as though they were an open tome
Top-lined with caustic monitory gnome;
'Dunces, Learn here to spell Humanity!'

And yet within these ruins' very shade
The singing workmen shape and set and join
Their frail new mansion's stuccoed cove and quoin
With no apparent sense that years abrade,
Though each rent wall their feeble works invade
Once shamed all such in power of pier and groin.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net