Lays of Ancient Rome - 3

Horatius at the Bridge
by Thomas B. Macaulay

V

From the proud mart of Pisae,
        Queen of the western waves,
Where ride Massilia's triremes
        Heavy with fair-haired slaves;
From where sweet Clanis wanders
        Through corn and vines and flowers;
From where Cortona lifts to heaven
        Her diadem of towers.

VI

Tall are the oaks whose acorns
        Drop in dark Auser's rill;
Fat are the stags that champ the boughs
        Of the Ciminian hill;
Beyond all streams Clitumnus
        Is to the herdsman dear;
Best of all pools the fowler loves
        The great Volsinian mere.

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Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates one of the great heroic legends of history. Horatius saves Rome from the Etruscan invaders in 642 BC. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Horatio at the Bridge from the first edition.

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