Rome has been dead these many hundred years -- Of all the might which thrust her bronze-clad men, Clamoring And storming to the ends of all the earth, Not strength enough is left today to lift A locust's wing. And yet she lives forever. Would you speak, She offers you the word. And would you build, On her pages Lies beauty deathless. Would you make a law, Rome whispered in Napoleon's ear a code For the ages. In overwhelming chaos everywhere Slouched the stupendous years, unnamed, unnoted. Even Greece afar Gave them but moon-guides, till stern Rome, aware, Ordered their march and gave the echoing world The calendar. There is a curving road from Engadine Whose Roman stones attest the centuries. Roman tools Made safe between its wild and steep escarpments The traveler of today. Forget the Caesars? -- Rome still rules. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON SPRING AND FALL: TO A YOUNG CHILD by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS TIPPERARY: 3. AS THE INTERLINEARS MIGHT TAKE IT FROM XENOPHON by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS LET HER SLEEP! by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS SHE IS SO PRETTY by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER THE CONSOLATION by LEVI BISHOP |