Time's spider lurks and lies in wait;
And on its poisoned claws, the beast
All watchful glides, assails, and grasps
The ruin. O thrice-holy beauties!
In vain all props and wisdom's arts!
In vain a tribe of sages seek
To save it! Time's remaining crumbs
Are scattered far and melt like frost.
Then from the lofty land of Thought,
Imagination came, a goddess
Among the gods, and made again,
Even where until now the ruin
Crumbled, what only its hands can make--
Deathless the first-born Parthenon.
_1896._