Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645)

Translated by Felicia Hemans

AMID these scenes, O pilgrim, seek’st thou Rome?

Vain is thy search,—the pomp of Rome is fled!

Her silent Aventine is glory’s tomb;—

Her walls, her shrines, but relics of the dead.

That hill, where Cæsars dwelt in other days,

Forsaken mourns, where once it towered sublime;

Each mouldering medal now far less displays

The triumphs won by Latium, than by Time.

Tiber alone survives;—the passing wave

That bathed her towers, now murmurs by her grave,

Wailing, with plaintive sounds, her fallen fanes.

Rome! of thine ancient grandeur all is past,

That seemed for years eternal framed to last;—

Nought but the wave, a fugitive, remains.