Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Rome, Churches of

The Pantheon

By Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861)

(From Amours de Voyage)

NO, great Dome of Agrippa, thou art not Christian! canst not,

Strip and replaster and daub and do what they will with thee, be so!

Here underneath the great porch of colossal Corinthian columns,

Here as I walk, do I dream of the Christian belfries above them?

Or on a bench as I sit and abide for long hours, till thy whole vast

Round grows dim as in dreams to my eyes, I repeople thy niches,

Not with the martyrs and saints and confessors add virgins and children,

But with the mightier forms of an older, austerer worship;

And I recite to myself, how
Eager for battle here

Stood Vulcan, here matronal Juno,

And with the bow to his shoulder faithful

He who with pure dew laveth of Castaly

His flowing locks, who holdeth of Lycia

The oak forest and the wood that bore him,

Delos’ and Patara’s own Apollo.