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Home  »  The Spirit of Man: An Anthology  »  From the Chinese

Robert Bridges, ed. (1844–1930). The Spirit of Man: An Anthology. 1916.

The Ruin

From the Chinese

THESE grey stones have rung with mirth and lordly carousel:

Here proud kings mingled Poetry and ruddy wine.

All hath pass’d long ago; nought but this ruin abideth,

Sadly in eyeless trance gazing upon the river.

Wou’dst thou know who here visiteth, dwelleth and singeth also,

Ask the swallows flying from sunny-wall’d Italy.