So I went forward, till I stood

Amid a marble solitude,

A ruined town of ancient day.

I rested where some steps away

From other work of human hand

Two solitary pillars stand,

Two pillars on a wild hill side,

Like sea-marks of a shrunken tide:

Their shafts were by the sea-breeze worn,

Beneath them waved the verdant corn;

But a few paces from the crown

Of that green summit, farther down,

A fallen pillar on the plain,

Slow sinking in the earth again,{14}

{14}

Bedding itself in dark black mould,

Lay moveless, where it first had rolled.

It once had been a pillar high,

And pointing to the starry sky;

But now lay prostrate, its own weight

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