POEMS OF JAMES RYDER RANDALL
ODE TO PROFESSOR DIMITRY
Suggested by his admirable lecture on the “Temples and Monuments of Greece”
Written at Georgetown University at the Age of Eighteen
Behold the man! What matchless lines of grace
Are blazoned round his great, expressive face!
The voice so full, so tremulously grand
Speaks from his heart the woes of that far land,
Which fallen now, once reigned the titled Queen
Of Mind, of Soul—all-seeing and all-seen—
Nurse of the Gods! bright Liberty’s abode!
The Poet’s pride! whence Homer’s song has flowed,
Rolling with ocean-flow from age to age—
The first—the last—the best on History’s page!
Foremost in Art, in Science, and in Strife,
In columned grandeur and in marble life—
Bend, bend before Hellenic tow’ring might
Ye gifted children of the Pure and Bright!
All this and more thrills forth—how silent all!
The burning echo riots round the hall,
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