Roman Genius
James Montgomery
Italy, thy beauties shroud
In a gorgeous evening cloud;
Thy refulgent head is bowed.
Rome, in ruins lovely still,
On her Capitolian hill,
Bids thee, mourner, weep thy fill.
Yet where Roman genius reigns,
Roman blood must warm the veins;
Look well, tyrants, to your chains!
This is an extract from the long poem A Voyage Round the World.
