Memorial Pillar! 'mid the wrecks of Time 35 Preserve thy charge with confidence sublime-- The exultations, pomps, and cares of Rome, Whence half the breathing world received its doom; Things that recoil from language; that, if shown By apter pencil, from the light had flown. 40 A Pontiff, Trajan _here_ the Gods implores, _There_ greets an Embassy from Indian shores; Lo! he harangues his cohorts--_there_ the storm Of battle meets him in authentic form! Unharnessed, naked, troops of Moorish horse 45 Sweep to the charge;[412] more high, the Dacian force, To hoof and finger mailed;[413]--yet, high or low, None bleed, and none lie prostrate but the foe;[414] In every Roman, through all turns of fate, Is Roman dignity inviolate; 50 Spirit in him pre-eminent, who guides,[415] Supports, adorns, and over all presides; Distinguished only by inherent state From honoured Instruments that round him wait;[416] Rise as he may, his grandeur scorns the test 55 Of outward symbol, nor will deign to rest On aught by which another is deprest. --Alas! that One thus disciplined could toil To enslave whole nations on their native soil; So emulous of Macedonian fame, 60 That, when his age was measured with his aim, He drooped, 'mid else unclouded victories, And turned his eagles back with deep-drawn sighs. O weakness of the Great! O folly of the Wise! Where now the haughty Empire that was spread 65 With such fond hope? her very speech is dead; Yet glorious Art the power of Time defies, And Trajan still, through various enterprise, Mounts, in this fine illusion, toward the skies: Still are we present with the imperial Chief, 70 Nor cease to gaze upon the bold Relief Till Rome, to silent marble unconfined, Becomes with all her years a vision of the Mind.