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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Ruins of Rome, by Bellay</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">1 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Ye heavenly spirits, whose ashy cinders lie <br>Under deep ruins, with huge walls opprest, <br>But not your praise, the which shall never die <br>Through your fair verses, ne in ashes rest; <br>If so be shrilling voice of wight alive <br>May reach from hence to depth of darkest hell, <br>Then let those deep Abysses open rive, <br>That ye may understand my shreiking yell. <br>Thrice having seen under the heavens' vail <br>Your tomb's devoted compass over all, <br>Thrice unto you with loud voice I appeal, <br>And for your antique fury here do call, <br>The whiles that I with sacred horror sing, <br>Your glory, fairest of all earthly thing. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>2 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Great Babylon her haughty walls will praise, <br>And sharpèd steeples high shot up in air; <br>Greece will the old Ephesian buildings blaze; <br>And Nylus' nurslings their Pyramids fair; <br>The same yet vaunting Greece will tell the story <br>Of Jove's great image in Olympus placed, <br>Mausolus' work will be the Carian's glory, <br>And Crete will boast the Labybrinth, now 'rased; <br>The antique Rhodian will likewise set forth <br>The great Colosse, erect to Memory; <br>And what else in the world is of like worth, <br>Some greater learnèd wit will magnify. <br>But I will sing above all monuments <br>Seven Roman Hills, the world's seven wonderments. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>3 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thou stranger, which for Rome in Rome here seekest, <br>And nought of Rome in Rome perceiv'st at all, <br>These same old walls, old arches, which thou seest, <br>Old Palaces, is that which Rome men call. <br>Behold what wreak, what ruin, and what waste, <br>And how that she, which with her mighty power <br>Tam'd all the world, hath tam'd herself at last, <br>The prey of time, which all things doth devour. <br>Rome now of Rome is th' only funeral, <br>And only Rome of Rome hath victory; <br>Ne ought save Tyber hastening to his fall <br>Remains of all: O world's inconstancy. <br>That which is firm doth flit and fall away, <br>And that is flitting, doth abide and stay. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>4 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">She, whose high top above the stars did soar, <br>One foot on Thetis, th' other on the Morning, <br>One hand on Scythia, th' other on the Moor, <br>Both heaven and earth in roundness compassing, <br>Jove fearing, lest if she should greater grow, <br>The old Giants should once again uprise, <br>Her whelm'd with hills, these seven hills, which be now <br>Tombs of her greatness, which did threat the skies: <br>Upon her head he heaped Mount Saturnal, <br>Upon her belly th' antique Palatine, <br>Upon her stomach laid Mount Quirinal, <br>On her left hand the noisome Esquiline, <br>And Cælian on the right; but both her feet <br>Mount Viminall and Aventine do meet. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>5 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Who lists to see, what ever nature, art, <br>And heaven could do, O Rome, thee let him see, <br>In case thy greatness he can guess in heart, <br>By that which but the picture is of thee. <br>Rome is no more: but if the shade of Rome <br>May of the body yield a seeming sight, <br>It's like a corse drawn forth out of the tomb <br>By Magick skill out of eternal night: <br>The corpse of Rome in ashes is entombed, <br>And her great sprite rejoinèd to the sprite <br>Of this great mass, is in the same enwombed; <br>But her brave writings, which her famous merit <br>In spite of time, out of the dust doth rear, <br>Do make her idol through the world appear. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>6 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Such as the Berecynthian Goddess bright <br>In her swift chariot with high turrets crowned, <br>Proud that so many Gods she brought to light; <br>Such was this City in her good days found: <br>This city, more than the great Phrygian mother <br>Renowned for fruit of famous progeny, <br>Whose greatness by the greatness of none other, <br>But by herself her equal match could see: <br>Rome only might to Rome comparèd be, <br>And only Rome could make great Rome to tremble: <br>So did the Gods by heavenly doom decree, <br>That other deathly power should not resemble <br>Her that did match the whole earth's puissaunce, <br>And did her courage to the heavens advance. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>7 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Ye sacred ruins, and ye tragic sights, <br>Which only do the name of Rome retain, <br>Old monuments, which of so famous sprites <br>The honour yet in ashes do maintain: <br>Triumphant arcs, spires neighbors to the sky, <br>That you to see doth th' heaven itself appall, <br>Alas, by little ye to nothing fly, <br>The people's fable, and the spoil of all: <br>And though your frames do for a time make war <br>'Gainst time, yet time in time shall ruinate <br>Your works and names, and your last relics mar. <br>My sad desires, rest therefore moderate: <br>For if that time make ends of things so sure, <br>It also will end the pain, which I endure. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>8 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Through arms and vassals Rome the world subdued, <br>That one would ween, that one sole City's strength <br>Both land and sea in roundess had surview'd, <br>To be the measure of her breadth and length: <br>This people's virtue yet so fruitful was <br>Of virtuous nephews that posterity <br>Striving in power their grandfathers to pass, <br>The lowest earth join'd to the heaven high; <br>To th' end that having all parts in their power <br>Nought from the Roman Empire might be 'quite, <br>And that though time doth Commonwealths devour, <br>Yet no time should so low embase their height, <br>That her head earth'd in her foundations deep, <br>Should not her name and endless honour keep. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>9 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Ye cruel stars, and eke ye Gods unkind, <br>Heaven envious, and bitter stepdame Nature, <br>Be it by fortune, or by course of kind <br>That ye do weld th' affairs of earthly creature: <br>Why have your hands long sithence troubled <br>To frame this world, that doth endure so long? <br>Or why were not these Roman palaces <br>Made of some matter no less firm and strong? <br>I say not, as the common voice doth say, <br>That all things which beneath the moon have being <br>Are temporal, and subject to decay: <br>But I say rather, though not all agreeing <br>With some, that ween the contrary in thought: <br>That all this whole shall one day come to nought. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>10 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">As that brave son of Aeson, which by charms <br>Achieved the golden fleece in Colchid land, <br>Out of the earth engendered men of arms <br>Of Dragons' teetch, sown in the sacred sand; <br>So this brave town, that in her youthly days <br>An Hydra was of warriors glorious, <br>Did fill with her renownéd nurslings praise <br>The firey sun's both one and other house: <br>But they at last, there being then not living <br>An Hercules, so rank seed to repress,; <br>Amongst themselves with cruel fury striving, <br>Mow'd down themselves with slaughter merciless; <br>Renewing in themselves that rage unkind, <br>Which whilom did those searthborn brethren blind. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>11 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Mars shaming to have given so great head <br>To his off-spring, that mortal puissance <br>Puffed up with pride of Roman hardy head, <br>Seem'd above heaven's power itself to advance; <br>Cooling again his former kindled heat, <br>With which he had those Roman spirits filled; <br>Did blow new fire, and with enflaméd breath, <br>Into the Gothic cold hot rage instill'd: <br>Then 'gan that Nation, th' earth's new Giant brood, <br>To dart abroad the thunder bolts of war, <br>And beating down these walls with furious mood <br>Into her mother's bosom, all did mar; <br>To th' end that none, all were if Jove his sire <br>Should boast himself of the Roman Empire. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>12 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Like as whilome the children of the earth <br>Heaped hills on hills, to scale the starry sky, <br>And fight against the Gods of heavenly birth, <br>Whilst Jove at them his thunderbolts let fly; <br>All suddenly with lightning overthrown, <br>The furious squadrons down the ground did fall, <br>That th' earth under her children's weight did groan, <br>And th' heavens in glory triumphed over all: <br>So did that haughty front which heapéd was <br>On these seven Roman hills, itself uprear <br>Over the world, and lift her lofty face <br>Against the heaven, that 'gan her force to fear. <br>But now these scorned fields bemoan her fall, <br>And Gods secure fear not her force at all. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>13 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Nor the swift fury of the flames aspiring, <br>Nor the deep wounds of victor's raging blade, <br>Nor ruthless spoil of soldiers blood-desiring, <br>The which so oft thee, Rome, their conquest made; <br>Ne stroke on stroke of fortune variable, <br>Ne rust of age hating continuance, <br>Nor wrath of Gods, nor spite of men unstable, <br>Nor thou oppos'd against thine own puissance; <br>Nor th' horrible uproar of winds high blowing, <br>Nor swelling streams of that God snaky-paced, <br>Which hath so often with his overflowing <br>Thee drenched, have thy pride so much abased; <br>But that this nothing, which they have thee left, <br>Makes the world wonder, what they from thee reft. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>14 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">As men in summer fearless pass the ford, <br>Which is in winter lord of all the plain, <br>And with his tumbling streams doth bear aboard <br>The plowman's hope, and shepherd's labor vain; <br>And as the coward beasts use to despise <br>The noble lion after his life's end <br>Whetting their teeth, and with vain foolhardise <br>Daring the foe, that cannot him defend: <br>And as at Troy most dastards of the Greeks <br>Did brave about the corpse of Hector cold; <br>So those which whilome wont with pallid cheeks <br>The Roman triumphs glory to behold, <br>Now on these ashy tombs show boldness vain, <br>And conquer'd dare the Conqueror disdain. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>15 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Ye pallid spirits, and ye ashy ghosts, <br>Which joying in the brightness of your day, <br>Brought forth those signs of your premptuous boasts <br>Which now their dusty relics do bewray; <br>Tell me ye spirits (sith the darksome river <br>Of Styx not passable to souls returning, <br>Enclosing you in thrice three wards forever, <br>Do not restrain your images still mourning) <br>Tell me then (for perhaps some one of you <br>Yet here above him secretly doth hide) <br>Do ye not feel your torments to accrue, <br>When ye sometimes behold the ruin'd pride <br>Of these old Roman works built with your hands, <br>Now to become nought else, but heaped sands? </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>16 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Like as ye see the wrathful sea from far, <br>In a great mountain heap'd with hideous noise, <br>Eftsoons of thousand bilows shouldered narre, <br>Against a rock to break with dreadful poise; <br>Like as ye see fell Boreas with sharp blast, <br>Tossing huge tempests through the troubled sky, <br>Eftsoons having his wide wings spent in vast, <br>To stop his wearie carrier suddenly; <br>And as ye see huge flames spread diversly, <br>Gathered in one up to the heavens to spire, <br>Eftsoons consum'd to fall down feebily: <br>So whilom did this Monarchy aspire <br>As waves, as wind, as fire spread over all, <br>Till it by fatal doom adown did fall. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>17 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So long as Jove's great bird did make his flight, <br>Bearing the fire with which heaven doth us fray, <br>Heaven had not fear of that presumptuous might, <br>With which the Giants did the Gods assay. <br>But all so soon, as scorching Sun had brent <br>His wings, which wont to the earth to overspread, <br>The earth out of her massy womb forth sent <br>That antique horror, which made heaven adread. <br>Then was the German raven in disguise <br>That Roman eagle seen to cleave asunder, <br>And towards heaven freshly to arise <br>Out of these mountains, not consum'd to powder. <br>In which the fowl that serves to bear the lightning, <br>Is now no more seen flying, nor alighting. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>18 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">These heaps of stones, these old walls which ye see, <br>Were first enclosures but of savage soil; <br>And these brave palaces which mastered be <br>Of time, were shepherds cottages somewhile. <br>Then took the shepherd kingly ornamnets <br>And the stout hynde arm'd his right hand with steel: <br>Eftsoones their rule of yearly presidents <br>Grew great, and six months greater a great deal; <br>Which made perpetual, rose to so great might, <br>That thence th' imperial Eagle rooting took, <br>Till th' heaven itself opposing 'gainst her might, <br>Her power to Peter's successor betook; <br>Who shepherdlike, (as fates the same forseeing) <br>Doth show, that all things turn to their first being. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>19 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">All that is perfect, which th' heaven beautifies; <br>All that's imperfect, born below the moon; <br>All that doth feed our spriits and our eyes; <br>And all that doth consume our pleasures soon; <br>All the mishap, the which our days outwears, <br>All the good hap of th' oldest times afore, <br>Rome in the time of her great ancesters, <br>Like a Pandora, locked long in store. <br>But destiny this huge Chaos turmoiling, <br>In which all good and evil was enclosed, <br>Their heavenly virtues from these woes absolving, <br>Carried to heaven, from sinful bondage loosed: <br>But their great sins, the causers of their pain, <br>Under these antique ruins yet remain. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>20 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">No otherwise than rainy cloud, first fed <br>With earthly vapors gathered in the air, <br>Eftsoones in compass arch'd, to steep his head, <br>Doth plunge himself in Tethys' bosom fair; <br>And mounting up again, from whence he came, <br>With his great belly spreads the dimmed world, <br>Till at last the last dissolving his moist frame, <br>In rain, or snow, or hail he forth is hurl'd; <br>This City, which was first but shepherds' shade, <br>Uprising by degrees, grew to such height, <br>That queen of land and sea herself she made. <br>At last not able to bear so great weight. <br>Her power dispers'd, through all the world did vade; <br>To show that all in th' end to nought shall fade. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>21 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The same which Pyrrhus, and the puissance <br>Of Afric could not tame, that same brave city, <br>Which with stout courage arm'd against mischance, <br>Sustain'd the shock of common enmity; <br>Long as her ship tossed with so many freaks, <br>Had all the world in arms against her bent, <br>Was never seen, that any fortune's wreaks <br>Could break her course begun with brave intent. <br>But when the object of her virtue failed, <br>Her power itself agains itself did arm; <br>As he that having long in tempest sailed, <br>Fain would arrive, but cannot for the storm, <br>If too great wind against the port him drive, <br>Doth in the port itself his vessel rive. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>22 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">When that brave honour of the Latin name, <br>Which bound her rule with Africa, and Byze, <br>With Thames' inhabitants of noble fame, <br>And they which see the dawning day arise; <br>Her nurslings did with mutinous uproar <br>Hearten against herself, her conquer'd spoil, <br>Which she had won from all the world afore, <br>Of all the world was spoil'd within a while. <br>So when the compass'd course of the universe <br>In six and thirty thousand years is run, <br>The bands of th' elements shall back reverse <br>To their first discord, and be quite undone: <br>The seeds, of which all things at first were bred, <br>Shall in great Chaos' womb again be hid. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>23 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">O wary wisdom of the man, that would <br>That Carthage towers from spoil should be forborn, <br>To th' end that his victorious people should <br>With cankering leisure not be overworn; <br>He well foresaw, how that the Roman courage, <br>Impatient of pleasure's faint desires, <br>Through idleness would turn to civil rage, <br>And be herself the matter of her fires. <br>For in a people given all to ease, <br>Ambition is engend'red easily; <br>As in a vicious body, gross disease <br>Soon grows through humours' superfluity. <br>That came to pass, when swoll'n with plentious pride, <br>Nor prince, nor peer, nor kin they would abide. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>24 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">If the blind fury, which wars breedeth oft, <br>Wonts not t' enrage the hearts of equal beasts, <br>Whether they fare on foot, or fly aloft, <br>Or arméd be with claws, or scaly crests; <br>What fell Erynnis with hot burning tongs, <br>Did grip your hearts, with noisome rage imbew'd, <br>That each to other working cruel wrongs, <br>You blades in your own bowels you embrew'd? <br>Was this (ye Romans) your hard destiny? <br>Or some old sin, whose unappeased guilt <br>Power'd vengeance forth on you eternally? <br>Or brother's blood, the which at first was spilt <br>Upon your walls, that God might not endure, <br>Upon the same to set foundation sure? </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>25 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">O that I had the Thracian Poet's harp, <br>For to awake out of th' infernal shade <br>Those antique Cæsars, sleeping long in dark, <br>The which this ancient City whilome made: <br>Or that I had Amphion's instrument, <br>To quicken with his vital note's accord, <br>The stony joints of these old walls now rent, <br>By which th' Ausonian light might be restor'd: <br>Or that at least I could with pencil fine, <br>Fashion the portraits of these palaces, <br>By pattern of great Virgil's spirit divine; <br>I would assay with that which in me is, <br>To build with level of my lofty style, <br>That which no hands can evermore compile. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>26 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Who list the Roman greatness forth to figure, <br>Him needeth not to seek for usage right <br>Of line, or lead, or rule, or square, to measure <br>Her length, her breadth, her deepness, or her height: <br>But him behooves to view in compass round <br>All that the ocean grasps in his long arms; <br>Be it where the yearly star doth scorch the ground, <br>Or where cold Boreas blows his bitter storms. <br>Rome was th' whole world, and all the world was Rome, <br>And if things nam'd their names do equalize, <br>When land and sea ye name, then name ye Rome; <br>And naming Rome ye land and sea comprise: <br>For th' ancient plot of Rome displayéd plain, <br>The map of all the wide world doth contain. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>27 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thou that at Rome astonish'd dost behold <br>The antique pride, which menaced the sky, <br>These haughty heaps, these palaces of old, <br>These walls, these arcs, these baths, these temples hie; <br>Judge by these ample ruins' view, the rest <br>The which injurious time hath quite outworne, <br>Since of all workmen held in reck'ning best, <br>Yet these old fragments are for patterns born: <br>Then also mark, how Rome from day to day, <br>Repairing her decayéd fashion, <br>Renews herself with buildings rich and gay; <br>That one would judge, that the Roman dæmon <br>Doth yet himself with fatal hand enforce, <br>Again on foot to rear her pouldred corse. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>28 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">He that hath seen a great oak dry and dead, <br>Yet clad with relics of some trophies old, <br>Lifting to heaven her agéd hoary head, <br>Whose foot in ground hath left but feeble hold; <br>But half disbowel'd lies above the ground, <br>Showing her wreathéd roots, and naked arms, <br>And on her trunk all rotten and unsound <br>Only supports herself for meat of worms; <br>And though she owe her fall to the first wind, <br>Yet of the devout people is ador'd, <br>And many young plants spring out of her rind; <br>Who such an oak hath seen let him record <br>That such this city's honor was of yore, <br>And 'mongst all cities flourishéd much more. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>29 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">All that which Egypt whilome did devise, <br>All that which Greece their temples to embrave, <br>After th' Ionic, Attic, Doric guise, <br>Or Corinth skill'd in curious works to 'grave; <br>All that Lysippus' practick art could form, <br>Appeles' wit, or Phidias his skill, <br>Was wont this ancient city to adorn, <br>And the heaven itself with her wide wonders fill; <br>All that which Athens ever brought forth wise, <br>All that which Africa ever brought forth strange, <br>All that which Asia ever had of prize, <br>Was here to see. O marvelous great change: <br>Rome living, was the world's sole ornament, <br>And dead, is now the world's sole monument. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>30 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Like as the seeded field green grass first shows, <br>Then from green grass into a stalk doth spring, <br>And from a stalk into an ear forth grows, <br>Which ear the fruitfull grain doth shortly bring; <br>And as in season due the husband mows <br>The waving locks of those fair yellow hairs, <br>Which bound in sheaves, and laid in comely rows, <br>Upon the naked fields in stacks he rears: <br>So grew the Roman Empire by degree, <br>Till that barbarian hands it quite did spill, <br>And left of it but these old marks to see, <br>Of which all passersby do somewhat pill: <br>As they which glean, the relics use to gather, <br>Which th' husbandman behind him chanced to scatter. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>31 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">That same is now nought but a campion wide, <br>Where all this world's pride once was situate. <br>No blame to thee, whosoever dost abide <br>By Nile, or Ganges, or Tigris, or Euphrate, <br>Ne Africa thereof guilty is, nor Spain, <br>Nor the bold people by the Thame's brinks, <br>Nor the brave, warlike brood of Alemagne, <br>Nor the born soldier which Rhine running drinks; <br>Thou only cause, O civil fury, art <br>Which sowing in the Aemathian fields thy spite, <br>Didst arm thy hand against thy proper heart; <br>To th' end that when thou wast in greatest height <br>To greatness grown, through long prosperity, <br>Thou then adown might'st fall more horribly. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>32 </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Hope ye, my verses, that posterity <br>Of age ensuing shall you ever read? <br>Hope ye that ever immortality <br>So mean harp's work may challenge for her mead? <br>If under heaven any endurance were, <br>These monuments, which not in paper writ, <br>Put in porphyry and marble do appear, <br>Might well have hop'd to have obtained it. <br>Na th' less my lute, whom Phoebus deigned to give, <br>Cease not to sound these old antiquities: <br>For if that time do let thy glory live, <br>Well mayst thou boast, how ever base thou be, <br>That thou art first, which of thy Nation sung <br>Th' old nonor of the people gowné long. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>L' Envoi </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=374404" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Bellay, first garland of free Poesy <br>That France brought forth, though fruitful of brave wits, <br>Well worthy thou of immorality, <br>That long hast travail'd by thy learned writs, <br>Old Rome out of her ashes to revive, <br>And give a second life to dead decays: <br>Needs must he all eternity survive, <br>That can to other give eternal days. <br>Thy days therefore are endless, and thy praise <br>Excelling all, that ever went before; <br>And after thee, 'gins Bartas high to raise <br>His heavenly Muse, th' Almighty to adore. <br>Live, happy spirits, th' honour of your name, <br>And fill the world with never dying fame.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br/></a><a href="https://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="https://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Edmund+Spenser">Edmund Spenser</a></strong></div>

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