Hill of the Pnyx

Nicholas Michell

But rock-crowned Athens calls our thoughts away,
There sits she, lovely in her calm decay,
The eye of Greece, Fame's daughter sad and lone,
The queen of Wisdom on her mouldering throne.
How thrill we, entering slow the western gate,
To climb yon mount where mightiest sages sate!
The rostrum, carved from stone, is seen this hour,
Where Eloquence distilled her silver shower.

Author's notes: The famous hill of the Pnyx, south of the Piraic gate, and west of the Areopagus, or hill of Mars, was partly included within the old walls of Athens. The rostrum, or stone pulpit, from which the orators addressed the assembly, still appears, and cannot fail to be an object of great interest to the literary traveller.