Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Penrith | | Roman Antiquities | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | From the Roman Station at Old Penrith
HOW profitless the relics that we cull, | |
| Troubling the last holds of ambitious Rome, | |
| Unless they chasten fancies that presume | |
| Too high, or idle agitations lull! | |
| Of the world’s flatteries if the brain be full, | 5 |
| To have no seat for thought were better doom, | |
| Like this old helmet, or the eyeless skull | |
| Of him who gloried in its nodding plume. | |
| Heaven out of view, our wishes what are they? | |
| Our fond regrets tenacious in their grasp? | 10 |
| The sage’s theory? the poet’s lay?— | |
| Mere fibulæ without a robe to clasp; | |
| Obsolete lamps, whose light no time recalls; | |
| Urns without ashes, tearless lachrymals! | | | | |
|
|
