In The Old Theatre, Fiesole.

Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)



I traced the Circus whose gray stones incline
Where Rome and dim Etruria interjoin,
Till came a child who showed an ancient coin
That bore the image of a Constantine.

She lightly passed; nor did she once opine
How, better than all books, she had raised for me
In swift perspective Europe's history
Through the vast years of Caesar's sceptred line.

For in my distant plot of English loam
'Twas but to delve, and straightway there to find
Coins of like impress.  As with one half blind
Whom common simples cure, her act flashed home
In that mute moment to my opened mind
The power, the pride, the reach of perished Rome.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
51

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAXX ABBA CDDCDC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 626
Words 114
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, was not a Scottish Minister, not a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland nor a Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University. more…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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    "In The Old Theatre, Fiesole." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/36413/in-the-old-theatre,-fiesole.>.

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A Dithyramb
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