Artwork Description:
Lone ampitheatre Grey Coliseum
Type of the antique Rome Rich reliquary
Of lofty contemplation left to Time
By buried centuries of pomp and power
At length, at length — after so many days
Of weary pilgrimage, and burning thirst,
Thirst for the springs of love lore that in thee lie,
I kneel, an altered, and an humble man,
Amid thy shadows, and so drink within
My very soul thy grandeur, gloom, and glory.
Vastness and Age and Memories of Eld
Silence and Desolation and dim Night
Gaunt vestibules and phantom-peopled aisles
I feel ye now: I feel ye in your strength
O spells more sure then than e’er Judæan king
Taught in the gardens of Gethsemane
O charms more potent than the rapt Chaldee
Ever drew down from out the quiet stars
Here, where a hero fell, a column falls:
Here, where the mimic eagle glared in gold,
A midnight vigil holds the swarthy bat:
Here, where the dames of Rome their yellow hair
Wav’d to the wind, now wave the reed and thistle:
Here, where on ivory couch the Cæsar sate,
On bed of moss lies gloating the foul adder:
Here, where on golden throne the monarch loll’d,
Glides spectre-like unto his marble home,
Lit by the wan light of the horned moon,
The swift and silent lizard of the stones.
These crumbling walls these tottering arcades
These mouldering plinths these sad, and blacken’d shafts
These vague entablatures this broken frieze
These shattered cornices this wreck this ruin
These stones, alas — these grey stones — are they all
All of the great and the colossal left
By the corrosive hours to Fate and me
“Not all,” — the echoes answer me “not all:
Prophetic sounds, and loud, arise forever
From us, and from all ruin, unto the wise,
As in old days from Memnon to the sun.
We rule the hearts of mightiest men: — we rule
With a despotic sway all giant minds.
We are not desolate — we pallid stones
Not all our power is gone not all our Fame
Not all the magic of our high renown
Not all the wonder that encircles us
Not all the mysteries that in us lie
Not all the memories that hang upon,
And cling around about us now and ever,
And clothe us in a robe of more than glory.”
Keywords:
Coliseum, Rome, Ancient Rome, Ruins, Ancient, Original Watercolor, Landscape Watercolor