Rome
Rome - meaning Summary
Impermanence of Imperial Rome
Pound’s short poem addresses a visitor who seeks an essential "Rome" but finds only worn arches and ordinary palaces. It contrasts the city’s imperial past with present decay, arguing that Rome’s grandeur survives mainly as name and monument. The poem insists on Time as the true conqueror: human pride and empires fall, while only traces—like the river Tiber and the idea of Rome—persist amid worldly change and transience.
Read Complete AnalysesO thou newcomer who seek’st Rome in Rome And find’st in Rome no thing thou canst call Roman; Arches worn old and palaces made common Rome’s name alone within these walls keeps home. Behold how pride and ruin can befall One who hath set the whole world ’neath her laws, All-conquering, now conquered, because She is Time’s prey, and Time conquereth all. Rome that art Rome’s one sole last monument, Rome that alone hast conquered Rome the town, Tiber alone, transient and seaward bent, Remains of Rome. O world, thou unconstant mime! That which stands firm in thee Time batters down, And that which fleeteth doth outrun swift Time.
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