IN A COLUMBARIUM

The autumn sun still bravely streams

Along the tomb-girt Appian Way,

And warms the heart of one who dreams

Of all its splendor on the day

When Scipio triumphed, bringing home

The spoils of Africa to Rome.

On this same road the conqueror came,

Called “Africanus, the Divine”

By thousands who adored his fame,

And proudly watched the endless line

Of Punic captives in his train,

And trophies, won on Zama's plain.

To-day the vast Campagna rolls

In stately grandeur to the sea,

But where are now the countless souls

Whose dwelling-place this used to be,

When all its space to Ostia's gate

Lay peopled and inviolate?

Ask of the Claudian arches gray

Which stride toward Rome in broken lines;

Ask of the lizards at their play

On relics of the Antonines;

Ask of the fever-blighted shore,

Where Roman galleys ride no more!

Yet some poor traces still remain

Of those who here have lived and died;

For underneath this solemn plain

The Christian catacombs still hide,—

A city of sepulchral gloom,

The martyrs’ labyrinthine tomb.

Moreover, in this classic soil,

Where sleeps so much of ancient Rome,

A simple peasant at his toil

Discovered‘ neath the upturned loam

The spot to which I now have come,—

A Roman Columbarium.

Down through its modern, open door

A flood of mellow sunshine falls

In golden waves from roof to floor,

Revealing in its moss-grown walls

The “dove-cotes”, where one still discerns

The fragments of old funeral urns.

One vacant niche, whose ampler space

Betokens special love and care,

Contained no doubt a sculptured face

Above the hallowed ashes there;

While, just beneath, faint letters spell

A faithful woman's fond farewell.

How often on love's wingèd feet

She doubtless sought this dear recess,

To deck with floral offerings sweet

Her sepulchre of happiness,

Whose script, despite two thousand years,

Preserves the memory of her tears!

Rome's annals hint not of the name

Of him whose dust lay treasured here,

But could the fleeting breath of fame

Have made him to her heart more dear?

A word of tenderness outweighs

In woman's soul a world of praise.

What though, remote from pomp and state,

At Caesar's court he could not shine?

Less blest had surely been his fate

Upon the lustful Palatine!

And mutual love, wherever viewed,

Is life's supreme beatitude.

Alas! the urn no longer stands

Within the little alcove dim;

Gone also are the faithful hands

That hung sweet roses on its rim;

And vanished even is the bust

Which watched above the sacred dust.

Yet still its words of love survive

The shocks and tragedies of time,

And bid our drooping hearts revive,

Inculcating the faith sublime

That, while the urn in ruin lies,

Love soars immortal to the skies.