Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/38

Now weeps in vain; their country calls to arms.
Such virtue Clelia, Cocles, Manlius, rouz'd;
Such were the Fabii, Decii; so inspir'd125
The Scipios battled, and the Gracchi spoke:
So rose the Roman state. Me now, of these
Deep musing, high ambitious thoughts inflame
Greatly to serve my country, distant land,
And build me virtuous fame; nor shall the dust130
Of these fall'n piles with show of sad decay
Avert the good resolve, mean argument,
The fate alone of matter. Now the brow
We gain enraptur'd; beauteously distinct
The num'rous porticoes and domes upswell,135
With obelisks and columns interpos'd,
And pine, and fir, and oak; so fair a scene
Sees not the dervise from the spiral tomb
Of ancient Chammos, while his eye beholds
Proud Memphis' relics o'er th' Egyptian plain;140
Nor hoary hermit from Hymettus' brow,
Tho' graceful Athens in the vale beneath.
Along the windings of the Muse's stream,
Lucid Ilyssus weeps her silent schools
And groves, unvisited by bard or sage.145
Amid the tow'ry ruins, huge, supreme,
Th' enormous amphitheatre behold,
Mountainous pile! o'er whose capacious womb
Pours the broad firmament its vary'd light,
While from the central floor the seats ascend150
Round above round, slow wid'ning to the verge,
A circuit vast and high; nor less had held
Imperial Rome and her attendant realms,
When, drunk with rule, she will'd the fierce delight,
And op'd the gloomy caverns, whence out rush'd,155
Before th' innumerable shouting crowd,
The fiery madded tyrants of the wilds,