O'ER all two rival cities reared the brow, And balanced all. Spread on Eurotas' bank, Amid a circle of soft rising hills, The patient Sparta one; the sober, hard, And man-subduing city; which no shape Of pain could conquer, nor of pleasure charm. Lycurgus there built, on the solid base Of equal life, so well a tempered state; Where mixed each government, in such just poise; Each power so checking, and supporting each; That firm for ages, and unmoved, it stood, The fort of Greece! without one giddy hour, One shock of faction, or of party rage. For, drained the springs of wealth, corruption there Lay withered at the root. Thrice happy land! Had not neglected art, with weedy vice Confounded, sunk. But if Athenian arts Loved not the soil; yet there the calm abode Of wisdom, virtue, philosophic ease, Of manly sense and wit, in frugal phrase Confined, and pressed into Laconic force. There too, by rooting thence still treacherous self, The public and the private grew the same. The children of the nursing public all, And at its table fed; for that they toiled, For that they lived entire, and even for that The tender mother urged her son to die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WAITING FOR THE GRAPES by WILLIAM MAGINN THE MULBERRY GARDEN: CHILD AND MAIDEN by CHARLES SEDLEY WINTER MEMORIES by HENRY DAVID THOREAU DISCIPLINE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH A SONNET. ON THE DEATH OF SYLVIA by PHILIP AYRES SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 40 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: WARNINGS by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |