Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.
The Terrace of St. Germain
By Bessie Rayner Parkes (18291925)T
Imperial Rome no equal shows—
Is that which casts a league of shade
Where Seine amidst her meadows flows.
Of living forest every year,
And Autumn drapes a splendid pall
For Nature as the days grow drear.
Which shaped and wrought the royal plan,
Yet Nature brought her nobler part
To dignify the work of man.
As if for giant footsteps meant;
What king but here might gaze his fill,
And pace the mighty path content!
To brood on sorrows day by day;
Of daughters who abjured his name,
And three fair kingdoms passed away.
His pictures show, as if he saw
The writing of some fatal scroll,
The sentence of some ruthless law;
A vain libation for the race,
Whose last lone son should lay his head
Uncrowned within the sacred place
Unto the king who wore his crown,
Canova’s tomb of moulded snow,
And words whereby his state is known.
On English page scarce owns a friend!
With what pathetic steps ye tread
The lordly walk from end to end!