What direful sights hast thou beheld,
As careless thou hast journied on:
The hemlock-bowl for Athen’s pride;
The gory field of Marathon;
The monarch crowned, the warrior plumed,
With power and with ambition burning;
Yet they must all have seemed to thee
Poor pigmies on a pivot turning.
Their pomp, their power, with thine compared,
How blank and void, how frail and fleeting!