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GREAT LOCALITIES. AN ASPIRATION. (4) - ZaunköniG - 26.12.2010 GREAT LOCALITIES. AN ASPIRATION. Oft do I muse in castle-building hours — O ! might some trick o' the air advance the hill Of Sion westward, I would gaze my fill Upon her far-projected walls and towers ! O ! that the realms our rounded earth doth hide Could, maugre all the horizons, be display'd To my rapt eyes and heart—o'er land and tide By some intense refractive power convey'd ! For I am bound by duties and constraints To mine own land, or move in modest round Among my neighbours ; tho' my spirit faints And hungers for the storied eastern ground : Cease, dreamer ! is it fit the laws of space And vision should be strain'd to meet thy case ? But, if it were, how soon Jerusalem Should front my homestead with her mountain-hold ! And ever-listening hills of Bethlehem Report themselves in colours clear and bold ! Then would I summon here old Cheops' tomb, With its broad base to flank my bordering wood — A mighty phantom ! pressing for the room It holds in Egypt ! next, with change of mood, Fair Athens should be welcomed, and the rest Of those immortal cities, one by one ; And, for my latest atmospheric guest, I'd bid that crumbled mound from Babylon Come looming up at sundown, with the moan Of evening winds, and shadows from the west. Nor—could I bring within my visual scope The great localities old stories boast — Would I forget thee, Troas ! whose first hope Of travel pointed to thy lonely coast ; How would my quicken'd fancy reproduce Th' incessant brazen flash of Homer's war, And heroes moving quick their ground to choose, With spear-tops burning like the autumn star, Along that sullen sea-board ! till, at length, Mine ear should thrill, my startled pulses bound. When from the trench those two grand voices rose — And each involved in th' other, swept their foes Before them, like a storm—the wrath and strength Of God and man conspiring to the sound ! GREAT LOCALITIES. ROME. Keen was the vision which Ambition lent To Rome's great captains, when the vacant reahn Was waiting for a chief to seize the helm, And their stern martial looks were southward bent From Gaul or Britain, like a wizard's gaze Constraining some weak victim to his harm, While yet the nations had no countercharm Against a despot's eye, in those fierce days ; The city of their greed seem'd well-nigh theirs, Half in their grasp, full clearly bodied forth ; My Rome should softly float into the north At my fond wish, convoy'd by gentle airs- - Rapt into Freedom's land a little while From Pio's grief, and Antonelli's guile ! |