TO VIRGIL. WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF THE MANTUANS X. I salute thee, Mantovano, I that loved thee since my day began, Wielder of the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man. Nineteenth Century. ALFRED TENNYSON. I. ROMAN VIRGIL, thou that singest Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire, Ilion falling, Rome arising, wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre; II. Landscape-lover, lord of language TWO YEARS AFTER. THE winter morning as I write - more than he that sang the Works and And the fast-falling flakes besmirch Days, All the chosen coin of fancy How pure o'er that far country-side flashing out from many a golden phrase; Must gleam the snow-waste drifted wide; III. Thou that singest wheat and woodland, tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and O'er wheat-sown slope and climbing lane, herd: Now the Rome of slaves hath perish'd, And ridge that bounds the battle plain; The church stands on the woodland hill, All seems the same; but where is she Whose name is breathed from brake and tree? Shall spring-tide wake the world again, This icy mist, these clouds of gray, And shall no vernal dawn await That brain of strength, that heart of fire, The aspiration, passion, power, Love's shattered dream-shall it not rise and the Rome of freemen holds her Re-builded for immortal eyes? place, I, from out the Northern Island sunder'd once from all the human race, Life's broken song end where round Him |