Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Cumae.
CUMAE .
O THOU ! to whom delights are known , 'Mid wrecks of years , and states o ' erthrown , Time ! ruthless Power ! around ivhose knees Cling tottering Age and pale Disease , Companions of whose loathsome way Are grisly Death and foul Decay ; Beneath thy scythe ' s unerring blow
The marble column totters low ; Thy sway the prostrate city owns , Thy might o ' erwhelms imperial thrones ! Yet still , regardless of thy doom , The purple hills are clothed in bloom ; The fragrant air , the smiling sea , No sad allegiance y ield to thee ;
Nor can thy wide control deny The cloudless heaven and azure sky . Rejoice , Italia ' s favoured glade ! Though deep in dust thy Chiefs are laid , Though silent now thy lyres , and long Hath perished all thy light of song , Still pour thy suns their mellow ray , Still , tinged with gold , thy billows play ; Each murmuring lake still charms , and still The music soothes of fount or rill :
All joys your genial Zephyr yields , All gifts that deck your cultured fields , Still live ; and Time unfelt shall glide O ' er spots the Muse hath sanctified : Still burns the Poet ' s hallow'd fire , Still shall the native Muse inspire , Long ' mid her fabled haunts shall roam , Her meads and valesand mountain home .
, Not so the seat , to Fame endear'd , By wandering tribes from Chaleis rear d . What trace untouch'd by Time remains , To tell the boast of Cumse ' s plains ? Where now each street ' s unequall'd pride?—In silence sunk and ruin wide . No vestige can the eye explore ,
Save the white cliff and well-known shore ; While grassy mounds alone declare That moral dwellings flourish'd there . Here once encircling walls appear'd , Some palace here its bulk uprear'd ; Where straggling brambles rudely twine With tendrils of th' unheeded vine
, Or purple violets , rich and rare , Their sweetness waste on desert air . Past is the festal scene ; no train Of youths or virgins throngs the plain ; VOL . VI . I
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Cumae.
CUMAE .
O THOU ! to whom delights are known , 'Mid wrecks of years , and states o ' erthrown , Time ! ruthless Power ! around ivhose knees Cling tottering Age and pale Disease , Companions of whose loathsome way Are grisly Death and foul Decay ; Beneath thy scythe ' s unerring blow
The marble column totters low ; Thy sway the prostrate city owns , Thy might o ' erwhelms imperial thrones ! Yet still , regardless of thy doom , The purple hills are clothed in bloom ; The fragrant air , the smiling sea , No sad allegiance y ield to thee ;
Nor can thy wide control deny The cloudless heaven and azure sky . Rejoice , Italia ' s favoured glade ! Though deep in dust thy Chiefs are laid , Though silent now thy lyres , and long Hath perished all thy light of song , Still pour thy suns their mellow ray , Still , tinged with gold , thy billows play ; Each murmuring lake still charms , and still The music soothes of fount or rill :
All joys your genial Zephyr yields , All gifts that deck your cultured fields , Still live ; and Time unfelt shall glide O ' er spots the Muse hath sanctified : Still burns the Poet ' s hallow'd fire , Still shall the native Muse inspire , Long ' mid her fabled haunts shall roam , Her meads and valesand mountain home .
, Not so the seat , to Fame endear'd , By wandering tribes from Chaleis rear d . What trace untouch'd by Time remains , To tell the boast of Cumse ' s plains ? Where now each street ' s unequall'd pride?—In silence sunk and ruin wide . No vestige can the eye explore ,
Save the white cliff and well-known shore ; While grassy mounds alone declare That moral dwellings flourish'd there . Here once encircling walls appear'd , Some palace here its bulk uprear'd ; Where straggling brambles rudely twine With tendrils of th' unheeded vine
, Or purple violets , rich and rare , Their sweetness waste on desert air . Past is the festal scene ; no train Of youths or virgins throngs the plain ; VOL . VI . I