Thirty Poems/The Ruins of Italica

by William Cullen Bryant

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THE RUINS OF ITALICA.

 

From the Spanish of Rioja.

 

I.Fabius, this region, desolate and drear, These solitary fields, this shapeless mound, Were once Italica, the far-renowned;For Scipio, the mighty, planted hereHis conquering colony, and now, o'erthrown,Lie its once dreaded walls of massive stone.   Sad relics, sad and vain,   Of those invincible men   Who held the region then.Funereal memories alone remain Where forms of high example walked of yore. Here lay the forum, there arose the fane, The eye beholds their places and no more.Their proud gymnasium and their sumptuous baths,Resolved to dust and cinders, strew the paths.Their towers, that looked defiance at the sky,Fallen by their own vast weight, in fragments lie. II.This broken circus, where the rock weeds climb, Flaunting with yellow blossoms, and defy The gods to whom its walls were piled so high,Is now a tragic theatre, where TimeActs his great fable, spreads a stage that showsPast grandeur's story and its dreary close.   Why, round this desert pit,   Shout not the applauding rows   Where the great people sit?Wild beasts are here, but where the combatant,  With his bare arms, the strong athleta where?All have departed from this once gay haunt Of noisy crowds, and silence holds the air.Yet, on this spot, Time gives us to beholdA spectacle as stern as those of old.As dreamily I gaze, there seem to rise,From all the mighty ruin, wailing cries. III.The terrible in war, the pride of Spain, Trajan, his country's father, here was born;Good, fortunate, triumphant, to whose reign Submitted the far regions, where the mornRose from her cradle, and the shore whose steepsO'erlooked the conquered Gaditanian deeps.   Of mighty Adrian here,   Of Theodosius, saint,   Of Silius, Virgil's peer,Were rocked the cradles, rich with gold, and quaint  With ivory carvings; here were laurel boughs And sprays of jasmine gathered for their brows,  From gardens now a marshy, thorny waste.Where rose the palace, reared for Cæsar, yawn  Foul rifts to which the scudding lizards haste.Palaces, gardens, Cæsars, all are gone,And even the stones their names were graven on. IV.Fabins, if tears prevent thee not, survey The long dismantled streets, so thronged of old,The broken marbles, arches in decay, Proud statues, toppled from their place and rolled In dust, when Nemesis, the avenger, came,  And buried, in forgetfulness profound,    The owners and their fame.   Thus Troy, I deem must be,   With many a mouldering mound;And thou, whose name alone remains to thee,Rome, of old gods and kings the native ground;And thou, sage Athens, built by Pallas, whomJust laws redeemed not from the appointed doom.The envy of earth's cities once wert thou,—A weary solitude and ashes now.For fate and death respect ye not: they strikeThe mighty city and the wise alike. V.But why goes forth the wandering thought to frame New themes of sorrow, sought in distant lands? Enough the example that before me stands;For here are smoke wreaths seen, and glimmering flame, And hoarse lamentings on the breezes die;So doth the mighty ruin cast its spell   On those who near it dwell.   And under night's still sky,   As awe-struck peasants tell,A melancholy voice is heard to cry,"Italica is fallen; the echoes thenMournfully shout "Italica" again.  The leafy alleys of the forest nigh Murmur "Italica," and all around, A troop of mighty shadows, at the soundOf that illustrious name, repeat the call,"Italica!" from ruined tower and wall.