A Roman Aqueduct

The sun-browned girl, whose limbs recline     When noon her languid hand has laid     Hot on the green flakes of the pine,     Beneath its narrow disk of shade;     As, through the flickering noontide glare,     She gazes on the rainbow chain     Of arches, lifting once in air     The rivers of the Roman's plain; -     Say, does her wandering eye recall     The mountain-current's icy wave, -     Or for the dead one tear let fall,     Whose founts are broken by their grave?     From stone to stone the ivy weaves     Her braided tracery's winding veil,     And lacing stalks and tangled leaves     Nod heavy in the drowsy gale.     And lightly floats the pendent vine,     That swings beneath her slender bow,     Arch answering arch, - whose rounded line     Seems mirrored in the wreath below.     How patient Nature smiles at Fame!     The weeds, that strewed the victor's way,     Feed on his dust to shroud his name,     Green where his proudest towers decay.     See, through that channel, empty now,     The scanty rain its tribute pours, -     Which cooled the lip and laved the brow     Of conquerors from a hundred shores.     Thus bending o'er the nation's bier,     Whose wants the captive earth supplied,     The dew of Memory's passing tear     Falls on the arches of her pride!