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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.

Syria: Acre (Ptolemais)

Ptolemais

By Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)

NO city on the many peopled earth

Hath been the witness of such valiant deeds

As thou hast, Ptolemais! and by whom

Were they achieved? by Britons, one and all.

The first our lion-hearted king may claim;

And who the second? he who drove across

The torrid desert the (till then uncheckt)

Invader, from those realms the Ptolemies

Ruled, and the Cæsars followed in their train,—

Sidney, the last of chivalry. One more

Rode o’er the sea to win the crown that hung

Inviting on thy walls: he also bore

A name illustrious even as Sidney’s own,—

Napier was he.
’T is something to have held

His hand in mine, ’t is somewhat to record

One of his actions in the crowded page.