Page:Foliage, various poems.djvu/63



city, that had temples there

More rich than that one built by David's son,

Which called forth Ophir's gold, when Israel

Made Lebanon half naked for her sake.

I saw white towers where so-called traitors died—

True men whose tongues were bells to honest hearts,

And rang out boldly in false monarch's ears.

Saw old black gateways, on whose arches crouched

Stone lions with their bodies gnawed by age.

I looked with awe on iron gates that could

Tell bloody stones if they had our tongues.

I saw tall mounted spires shine in the sun,

That stood amidst their army of low streets.

I saw in buildings pictures, statues rare,

Made in those days when Rome was young, and new

In marble quarried from Carrara's hills;

Statues by sculptors that could almost make

Fine cobwebs out of stone—so light they worked.

Pictures that breathe in us a living soul,