CICERO'S SOLILOQUY

A Y , look, and look again, at him who bore
The world and flinched not, but an hour ago.
In his colossal shadow yours was lost:
" Down with him, down, that we may see ourselves! "
He lies there; — are ye greater than before?
Beyond the door the world he carried waits
To fall upon your staggering feebleness
And loosen into chaos once again.
Flee ye, indeed! From that still figure prone
Stretches a shadow that may well affray.
Living, it alternated with the sun;
Dead, it creeps onward, licking up the light.
So have ye chilled the pulses of the world
Into stagnation. Flee, and be content!