The Poetry Corner

Paestum.

By W. M. MacKeracher

Paestum, your temples and your streets Have been restored to view; Your fadeless Grecian beauty greets The eyes of men anew. But where are all your roses now - Those wonderful delights That made such garlands for the brow Of your fair Sybarites? They in your time were more renown'd, And dearer to your heart, Than these fine works which mark the bound And highest reach of art. We'd see you as you look'd of old; Though column, arch and wall Were worth a kingdom to behold, One rose would shame them all.