Of human toil and deep desire began:

So shall ye still remain,

Lords of an elder and immutable race,

When many a broad metropolis of the plain,

Or thronging port by some renownèd shore,

Is sunk in nameless ruin, and its place

Recalled no more.

Empires have come and gone,

And glorious cities fallen in their prime;

Divine, far-echoing, names once writ in stone