I TRACED the Circus whose gray stones incline Where Rome and dim Etruria interjoin, Till came a child who showed an ancient coin That bore the image of a Constantine. She lightly passed; nor did she once opine How, better than all books, she had raised for me In swift perspective Europe's history Through the vast years of Caesar's sceptred line. For in my distant plot of English loam 'Twas but to delve, and straightway there to find Coins of like impress. As with one half blind Whom common simples cure, her act flashed home In that mute moment to my opened mind The power, the pride, the reach of perished Rome. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ORIGIN OF DIDACTIC POETRY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SOME ACCOUNT OF A NEW PLAY by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 32. EXHORTING HER TO PATIENCE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT ARCADIUS AND SEPHA by WILLIAM BOSWORTH THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH; LAST POEM, ROME, MAY, 1861 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING FOURTH BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 9 by THOMAS CAMPION THE CANTERBURY TALES: PROLOGUE TO SECOND NUN'S TALE by GEOFFREY CHAUCER ELEGIE UPON ANACREON, WHO WAS CHOAKED BY A GRAPE-STONE by ABRAHAM COWLEY |