Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Rome, the Campagna

Roman Roads

By John Dyer (1700?–1758)

(From Ruins of Rome)

AND see from every gate those ancient roads,

With tombs high-verged, the solemn paths of fame;

Deserve they not regard? O’er whose broad flints

Such crowds have rolled, so many storms of war;

Such trains of consuls, tribunes, sages, kings;

So many pomps; so many wondering realms:

Yet still through mountains pierced, o’er valleys raised,

In even state, to distant seas around,

They stretch their pavements.