Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
The Baths of Caracalla
By John Dyer (1700?–1758)(From Ruins of Rome)
E
Nigh where the Cestian pyramid divides
The mouldering wall, behold yon fabric huge,
Whose dust the solemn antiquarian turns,
And thence, in broken sculptures cast abroad
Like sibyl’s leaves, collects the builder’s name
Rejoiced, and the green medals frequent found
Doom Caracalla to perpetual fame:
The stately pines, that spread their branches wide
In the dun ruins of its ample halls,
Appear but tufts; as may whate’er is high
Sink in comparison, minute and vile.