Page:Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy - 2nd Edition.pdf/36

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THE RESTORATION



    Bright on your view such forms their splendor shed
As burst on Prophet-bards in ages fled:
Forms that to trace, no hand but yours might dare,
Darkly sublime, or exquisitely fair,
These o'er the walls your magic skill arrayed,
Glow in rich sunshine, gleam thro' melting shade,
Float in light grace, in awful greatness tower,
And breathe and move, the records of your power.
Inspired of Heaven! what heightened pomp ye cast,
O'er all the deathless trophies of the past!
Round many a marble fane and classic dome,
Asserting still the majesty of Rome;
Round many a work that bids the world believe,
What Grecian Art could image and achieve;
Again, creative minds, your visions throw,
Life's chastened warmth, and Beauty's mellowest glow,
And when the Morn's bright beams and mantling dyes,
Pour the rich lustre of Ausonian skies,