|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE IDEAL CITY, by ALBERT EDMUND TROMBLY
First Line: Tis not in numbers that a city's great
Last Line: Who sacrifices self to succor all.
Subject(s): Scholarship & Scholars
First Line: Tis not in numbers that a city's great
Last Line: Who sacrifices self to succor all.
Subject(s): Scholarship & Scholars
'Tis not in numbers that a city's great:
The population of the Attic town
Is quite forgotten now; but what came down
Is Sophocles portraying love and hate;
The life of Socrates and his sad fate;
Praxiteles bidding marble smile or frown;
Demosthenes denouncing Philip's crown;
And Plato's vision of the perfect state.
'Tis not for numbers that a town should cope:
For Babylon, not Athens, follows then,
And Babylon we know but by its fall;
No, not in numbers let us place our hope,
But in the large heart of the citizen
Who sacrifices self to succor all.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
GILES JOHNSON, PH.D by FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS
ADDRESS TO THE SCHOLARS OF NEW ENGLAND by JOHN CROWE RANSOM
VERSES, READ AT MY INITIATION INTO THE O.K. by GEORGE SANTAYANA
VERSES, SUNG AT MY INITIATION INTO THE PUDDING by GEORGE SANTAYANA
FOR BILL NESTRICK by FRANK BIDART
THE SCHOLAR GIPSY by MATTHEW ARNOLD
A GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL by ROBERT BROWNING
THE SCHOLARS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
A BOY'S HANDS by ALBERT EDMUND TROMBLY