Ruin!—which sunk in premature decay, 225
From ev’ry levell’d column seems to say:
“Thus human wisdom plans for endless time,
“Thus vice and folly mar the proud design;”
’Tis good to wander through thy palace bowers,
And tread the site of thy once stately towers! 230
From thy thick shades what mournful thoughts arise!
Through thy far groves the sounding axe replies;
Down sinks the pile! and ruin spreads o’er all
The silence of its dark funereal pall.