Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TIBER, NILE, AND THAMES, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TIBER, NILE, AND THAMES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The head and hands of murdered cicero
Last Line: Breadless, with poison froze the god-fired breath?
Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante
Subject(s): Chatterton, Thomas (1752-1770); Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 B.c.); Cleopatra's Needle (obelisks); Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834); Keats, John (1795-1821); London; Poetry & Poets; Roman Empire; Rome, Italy


THE head and hands of murdered Cicero,
Above his seat high in the Forum hung,
Drew jeers and burning tears. When on the rung
Of a swift-mounted ladder, all aglow,
Fulvia, Mark Antony's shameless wife, with show
Of foot firm-poised and gleaming arm upflung,
Bade her sharp needle pierce that god-like tongue
Whose speech fed Rome even as the Tiber's flow.

And thou, Cleopartra's Needle, that hadst thrid
Great skirts of Time ere she and Antony hid
Dead hope!--hast thou too reached, surviving death,
A city of sweet speech scorned,--on whose chill stone
Keats withered, Coleridge pined, and Chatterton,
Breadless, with poison froze the God-fired breath?





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