Joachim du Bellay (1552–1560)

Translated by Edmund Spenser

ON high hill’s top I saw a stately frame,

An hundred cubits high by just assize,

With hundred pillars fronting fair the same,

All wrought with diamond, after Doric wise;

Nor brick nor marble was the wall to view,

But shining crystal, which from top to base

Out of her womb a thousand rayons threw,

One hundred steps of Afric gold enchase:

Gold was the parget; and the ceiling bright

Did shine all scaly with great plates of gold;

The floor of jasp and emerald was dight.

O, world’s vainness! while thus I did behold,

An earthquake shook the hill from lowest seat,

And overthrew this frame with ruin great.