The sound shall temper with the owlets' cry,
As I now hear them, in the fading light
Dim o'er the bird of darkness' native site,
Answering each other on the Palatine,
With their large eyes, all glistening gray and bright,
And sailing pinions.--Upon such a shrine
What are our petty griefs?--let me not number mine.

CVII.

Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower grown[483]
Matted and massed together--hillocks heaped
On what were chambers--arch crushed, column strown
In fragments--choked up vaults, and frescos steeped
In subterranean damps, where the owl peeped,[of]
Deeming it midnight:--Temples--Baths--or Halls?
Pronounce who can: for all that Learning reaped
From her research hath been, that these are walls--
Behold the Imperial Mount! 'tis thus the Mighty falls.[484]

CVIII.

There is the moral of all human tales;[485]
'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,
First Freedom, and then Glory--when that fails,
Wealth--Vice--Corruption,--Barbarism at last.
And History, with all her volumes vast,
Hath but _one_ page,--'tis better written here,
Where gorgeous Tyranny hath thus amassed
All treasures, all delights, that Eye or Ear,
Heart, Soul could seek--Tongue ask--Away with words! draw near,

CIX.

Admire--exult--despise--laugh--weep,--for here
There is such matter for all feeling:--Man![og]
Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear,
Ages and Realms are crowded in this span,
This mountain, whose obliterated plan
The pyramid of Empires pinnacled,
Of Glory's gewgaws shining in the van[oh]
Till the Sun's rays with added flame were filled!
Where are its golden roofs?[486] where those who dared to build?

CX.

Tully was not so eloquent as thou,
Thou nameless column[487] with the buried base!
What are the laurels of the Caesar's brow?
Crown me with ivy from his dwelling-place.
Whose arch or pillar meets me in the face,
Titus or Trajan's? No--'tis that of Time:
Triumph, arch, pillar, all he doth displace[oi]
Scoffing; and apostolic statues[488] climb
To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime,

CXI.

Buried in air, the dee