 | An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|Prose works, from the original editions (Volume 1).djvu/407}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |  |
THE COLISEUM.
A FRAGMENT.[1]
At the hour of noon, on the feast of the Passover,
an old man, accompanied by a girl, apparently
his daughter, entered the Coliseum at Rome.
They immediately passed through the Arena, and seeking
a solitary chasm among the arches of the southern
part of the ruin, selected a fallen column for their seat,
and clasping each other's hands, sate as in silent contemplation
of the scene. But the eyes of the girl were
fixed upon her father's lips, and his countenance, sublime
and sweet, but motionless as some Praxitelean
image of the greatest of poets, filled the silent air with
smiles, not reflected from external forms.
It was the great feast of the Resurrection, and the whole native population of Rome, together with all the foreigners who flock from all parts of the earth to contemplate its celebration, were assembled round the Vatican. The most awful religion of the world went forth surrounded by emblazonry of mortal greatness, and mankind had assembled to wonder at and worship
- ↑ Imperfectly printed in The Shelley Papers, 1833: first printed correctly and completely in the two-volume edition of Shelley's Essays and Letters, edited by Mrs. Shelley.
