Have well-nigh passed since first the earth’s green breast
Confessed, deep-graved, those feet that Christ confessed,—
Those feet which, then when earth was Palestine,
Circled her Salem new. Mankind was thine,
O Rome, that time. All nations sent their best
To waft thee offerings, and their faith attest:—
They love thee most who love thee in decline.
The noble seek thy courts. What gibbering crew
Snarls at their heels? The brood that fears and hates;—
Prescient Defeat in bonds, that jeers the brave: