WHERE stood Salvator, when with all his storms Around him winter rav'd, When being, none save man, the tempest brav'd? When on her mountain crest The eagle sank to rest, Nor dar'd spread out her pennons to the blast: Nor, till the whirlwind passed, The famish'd wolf around the sheep-cote prowl'd? Where stood Salvator, when the forest howl'd, Where stood Salvator, when the summer cloud Than winter, and its elemental war, Gather'd the tempest, from whose ebon shroud, I see him where the spirit of the storm His daring votary led: Firm stands his foot on the rock's topmost head, Where the prone river, after length of course, An avalanche cataract, whirl'd in thunder o'er The promontory's height, Bursts on the rock: while round the mountain brow, Half, half the flood rebounding in its might, Spreads wide a sea of foam evanishing in light. ROME. I SAW the ages backward roll'd, The scenes long past restore: Scenes that Evander bade his guest behold, And eagles on its crest their aërie hung: And when fierce gales bow'd the high pines, when blaz'd Some unknown godhead heard, and, awe-struck, gaz'd On Jove's imagin'd form : And in that desert, when swoln Tyber's wave Went forth the twins to save, Their reedy cradle floating on his flood: While yet the infants on the she-wolf clung, While yet they fearless play'd her brow beneath, The spirit of her blood, As o'er them seen to breathe With fond reverted neck she hung, And lick'd in turn each babe, and formed with fostering tongue : And when the founder of imperial Rome Fix'd on the robber hill, from earth aloof, His predatory home, And hung in triumph round his straw-thatched roof The wolf skin, and huge boar tusks, and the pride Of branching antlers wide: And tower'd in giant strength, and sent afar His voice, that on the mountain echoes roll'd, Stern preluding the war: And when the shepherds left their peaceful fold, And from the wild wood lair, and rocky den, Round their bold chieftain rush'd strange forms of barbarous men : Then might be seen by the presageful eye The vision of a rising realm unfold, And temples roof'd with gold. And in the gloom of that remorseless time, When Rome the Sabine seiz'd, might be foreseen In the first triumph of successful crime, The shadowy arm of one of giant birth Forging a chain for earth: And tho' slow ages roll'd their course between, His war-worn legions on, Troubling the pastoral stream of peaceful Rubicon. Such might o'er clay-built Rome have been foretold And the globe Cæsar's footstool, who, when Rome On their polluted temple; who but thou, Yet, ere that destin'd time, The love-lute, and the viol, song, and mirth, A voice borne back on every passing wind, One voice, as from the lip of human kind, To commune with thy wrecks, and works sublime, Rome! thou art doom'd to perish, and thy days, Like mortal man's, are numbered: number'd all, Ere each fleet hour decays. Though pride yet haunt thy palaces, though art Thy sculptur'd marbles animate: Though thousands, and ten thousands throng thy gate; Though kings and kingdoms with thy idol mart Yet traffic, and thy throned priest adore : Thy second reign shall pass,-pass like thy reign of yore.— THE GROTTO OF EGERIA. CAN I forget that beauteous day, The stone its roots had writh'd in twain? No zephyr on the leaflet play'd, No bent grass bow'd its slender blade, The coiled snake lay slumber-bound : Stranger! that roam'st in solitude! Pass within the gloom of night, Where the cool grot's dark arch o'ershades Of many a fragrant brier that weaves Its blossom thro' the ivy leaves. Thou, too, beneath that rocky roof, Where the moss mats its thickest woof, Shalt hear the gather'd ice-drops fall Regular, at interval, Drop after drop, one after one, While every drop, in slow decay, Thou, too, if ere thy youthful ear Lull'd to slumber in that cave, Shalt hail the nymph that held the wave; A goddess, who there deign'd to meet, A mortal from Rome's regal seat, And o'er the gushing of her fount, Mysterious truths divine to earthly ear recount. |