Love Among the Ruins
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet

'...But he looked upon the city, every side,
      Far and wide,
All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades'
      Colonnades,
All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts,--and then
      All the men!
When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand,
      Either hand
On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace
      Of my face,
Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech
      Each on each.

In one year they sent a million fighters forth
      South and North,
And they built their gods a brazen pillar high
      As the sky
Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force--
      Gold, of course.
O heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!
      Earth's returns
For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!
      Shut them in,
With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!
      Love is best.'

excerpt from Love among the Ruins, Men and Women: Vol. I
Love among the Ruins by Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Representative Poetry Online

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