Life's chasten'd warmth, and Beauty's mellowest glow;
And when the morn's bright beams and mantling dyes,
Pour the rich lustre of Ausonian skies,
Or evening suns illume with purple smile,
The Parian Altar, and the pillar'd aisle,
Then as the full or soften'd radiance falls,
On Angel-groups that hover o'er the walls,
Well may those samples[errata 1], where your hand has shed
Light o'er the tomb, Existence round the dead,
Seem like some world, so perfect and so fair,
That nought of earth should find admittance there,
Some sphere, where beings to mankind unknown
Dwell in the brightness of their pomp, alone!
And lo! thy sons, O Rome! a godlike train,
In imag'd majesty return again!
Bards, Chieftains, Monarchs, tower with mien august,
O'er scenes that shrine their venerable dust.
- ↑ Correction: samples should be amended to temples
