Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DEATH OF ANTONINUS PIUS, by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DEATH OF ANTONINUS PIUS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Through the marble gates of ostia
Last Line: And thine aequanimitas!
Subject(s): Death; Life; Nations; Rome, Italy; Sea; Dead, The; Ocean


Through the marble gates of Ostia,
Where the Tiber meets the sea,
And a hundred Roman galleys
Strain their leashes to be free,
Streams a flood of sunset glory
From the classic sea of old,
Till Rome's seven hills stand gleaming,
And the Tiber turns to gold.

Why, indifferent to this splendor,
Do the people throng the streets?
What is everyone demanding
Of the stranger whom he meets?
They have heard alas! the rumor
That, ere dawn regilds the sky,
All the world may be in mourning,
For the Emperor must die.

Search, O Romans, through the annals
Of the rulers of your race,
From the zenith of their glory
To their ultimate disgrace, --
And as earth's most perfect master,
And the noblest of your line,
You will yield your greatest homage
To this dying Antonine.

For he holds a Caesar's sceptre
In a loving father's hand,
And his heart and soul are given
To the welfare of his land;
Through his justice every nation
Hath beheld its warfare cease,
And he leaves to his successor
Rome's gigantic world at peace.

Hence these nations now are waiting
In an anguish of suspense,
For their future is as doubtful,
As their love for him intense;
By the Nile and on the Danube,
From the Tagus to the Rhine,
There is mourning among millions
For the man they deem divine.

Now the sunset glow is fading,
And the evening shadows creep
O'er the ashen face of Caesar,
As he lies in seeming sleep;
But he slumbers not; for, faithful
To his duties, small and great,
He is not alone the sovereign,
But the servant of the State.

Unrebuked, then, his Centurion,
As the sun-god sinks from sight,
Makes his wonted way to Caesar
For the password of the night;
And great Antonine, though conscious
That ere dawn his soul must pass,
As his last, imperial watchword,
Utters "AEquanimitas!"

O thou noblest of the Caesars,
Whose transcendent virtues shine,
Like a glorious constellation,
O'er the blood-stained Palatine,
When the latest sands are running
From my life's exhausted glass,
May I have thy calm and courage,
And thine AEquanimitas!





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