Classic Poem

ON AN ANCIENT ROMAN COIN

How long the years since you were fair and bright?
In what dim vault have you been hid away, —
Coming with air antique to our clear day
From out vast centuries of silent night?
Ah! how your glow gladdened a weary sight
In times remote, when earth beheld the sway
Of some great Caesar, scarred in many a fray,
And marshaled countless legions to the fight.
Perhaps a soldier, marching out from Rome,
Gave you a token to his chosen fair,
And ne'er came back to claim you his again;
Or you were left to guard some lonely home
From fierce attack of hunger, want, and care,
By a tanned sailor bound across the main.