Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/35

The throne of nations, fall'n! obscur'd in dust;
Ev'n yet majestical: the solemn scene
Elates the soul, while now the rising sun 20
Flames on the ruins in the purer air
Tow'ring aloft upon the glittering plain,
Like broken rocks, a vast circumference!
Rent palaces, crush'd columns, rifled moles,
Fanes roll'd on fanes, and tombs on bury'd tombs! 25
Deep lies in dust the Theban obelisk
Immense along the waste; minuter art,
Gliconian forms, or Phidian, subtly fair,
O'erwhelming; as th' immense leviathan
The finny brood, when near Ierne's shore 30
Outstretch'd, unwieldy, his island length appears
Above the foamy flood. Globose and huge,
Gray-mouldering temples swell, and wide o'ercast
The solitary landscape, hills and woods,
And boundless wilds; while the vine-mantled brows 35
The pendent goats unveil, regardless they
Of hourly peril, tho' the clefted domes
Tremble to every wind. The pilgrim oft,
At dead of night, 'mid his oraison hears
Aghast the voice of Time, disparting tow'rs,40
Tumbling all precipitate down-dash'd,
Rattling around, loud thund'ring to the moon;
While murmurs soothe each awful interval
Of ever-falling waters; shrouded Nile,
Eridanus, and Tiber with his twins,45
And palmy Euphrates: they with dropping locks
Hang o'er their urns, and mournfully among
The plaintive echoing ruins pour their streams.
Yet here, advent'rous in the sacred search
Of ancient arts, the delicate of mind,50
Curious and modest, from all climes resort,
Grateful society! with these I raise