Love Among the Ruins

13Now, — the country does not even boast a tree,

14 As you see,

15To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills

16 From the hills

17Intersect and give a name to (else they run

18 Into one),

19Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires

20 Up like fires

21O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall

22 Bounding all,

23Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed,

24 Twelve abreast.

25And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass

26 Never was!

27Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads

28 And embeds

29Every vestige of the city, guessed alone,

30 Stock or stone —

31Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe

32 Long ago;

33Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame

34 Struck them tame;

35And that glory and that shame alike, the gold

36 Bought and sold.

37Now, — the single little turret that remains

38 On the plains,

39By the caper overrooted, by the gourd

40 Overscored,

41While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks

42 Thro' the chinks —

43Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time

44 Sprang sublime,

45And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced

46 As they raced,

47And the monarch and his minions and his dames

48 Viewed the games.

49And I know — while thus the quiet-coloured eve

50 Smiles to leave

51To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece

52 In such peace,

53And the slopes and rills in undistinguished gray

54 Melt away —

55That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair

56 Waits me there

57In the turret whence the charioteers caught soul

58 For the goal,

59When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb

60 Till I come,

61But he looked upon the city, every side,

62 Far and wide,

63All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades'

64 Colonnades,

65All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts, — and then,

66 All the men!

67When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand,

68 Either hand

69On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace

70 Of my face,

71Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech

72 Each on each.

73In one year they sent a million fighters forth

74 South and North,

75And they built their gods a brazen pillar high

76 As the sky,

77Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force —

78 Gold, of course.

79Oh heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!

80 Earth's returns

81For whole centuries of folly, noise, and sin!

82 Shut them in,

83With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!

84 Love is best.