Explore "New Rome" by Matthew Arnold on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Lines Written for Miss Story's Album / The armless Vatican Cupid / Hangs down his beautiful head; / For the priests have got him in prison, / And Psyche long has been dead.
But see, his shaven oppressors / Begin to quake and disband!
And The Times, that bright Apollo, / Proclaims salvation at hand.
"And what," cries Cupid, "will save us?"
Says Apollo: "Modernise Rome!
What inns! Your streets, too, how narrow!
Too much of palace and dome!
"O learn of London, whose paupers / Are not pushed out by the swells!
Wide streets with fine double trottoirs; / And then -- the London hotels!"
The armless Vatican Cupid / Hangs down his head as before.
Through centuries past it has hung so, / And will through centuries more.