Poems (Shore)/Cola di Rienzi

by Louisa Catherine Shore

PART I

EARLY POEMS

COLA DI RIENZI

 

(EXTRACT FROM A POEM SO NAMED)

A poet of the ancient dayHe seemed, whose spirit-stirring layMight rouse the burning, bounding bloodThroughout as vast a multitudeAs ever to the banners leaptOf youthful Scipio, or through RomeHeld high the torch, whilst nobles slept,To light their Tribune to his home,

Nor thought th' impassioned youth how heWho tamed the Carthaginian prideOn Zama's field of victory,A broken-hearted exile died;That Scipio yielded his proud spirit upThe hour when Hannibal drained off the poison cup.That he who saved, and he who could not saveHis country, slept in an unhonoured grave;Nor thought how erst the murdered Gracchi fellWhose dying groans were Rome's last knell.

 1839.