Here strode triumphant Cæsars
Returning honored home:
Here rose the gorgeous temples
Of proud imperial Rome.
Here burned the Vestal Fire
The endless seasons through:
Here reared the haughty Arches
The far-flung Nations knew.
Lord of the last least horizon--
King of the Outer Seas--
Where beat a heart, where stood a mart,
There bended suppliant knees--
To Thee--Resplendent Sovereign--
Cradled among the hills,
Who still through the countless centuries
The wondering watcher thrills.
_Only a Tale of the Ages--_
_Power and Pride and Death--_
_And the afterlight of an Empire’s might--_
_And the soft Campania’s breath._
_Only the crumbled marble,_
_And Memory’s lingering wine,_
_And the grass and the scarlet poppies_
_And clover and dandelion._