tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147393486014631294.post7981660593216432797..comments2024-03-24T06:37:31.047-07:00Comments on Rome the Second Time: Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere - Exploring Rome's Underground on Your OwnDianne Bennett and William Graebnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00020113718051468497noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147393486014631294.post-88270228107339545952021-04-23T07:28:16.055-07:002021-04-23T07:28:16.055-07:00Explore the church´s undergroud like the poet:
&q...Explore the church´s undergroud like the poet:<br /><br />"There is a dungeon, in whose dim drear light<br />What do I gaze on? Nothing—Look again!<br />Two forms are slowly shadowed on my sight—<br />Two insulated phantoms of the brain:<br />It is not so—I see them full and plain—<br />An old man, and a female young and fair,<br />Fresh as a nursing mother, in whose vein<br />The blood is nectar:—but what doth she there,<br />With her unmantled neck, and bosom white and bare?<br /><br />Full swells the deep pure fountain of young life,<br />Where on the heart and from the heart we took<br />Our first and sweetest nurture—when the wife,<br />Blest into mother, in the innocent look,<br />Or even the piping cry of lips that brook<br />No pain and small suspense, a joy perceives<br />Man knows not—when from out its cradled nook<br />She sees her little bud put forth its leaves—<br />What may the fruit be yet?—I know not—Cain was Eve's.<br /><br /><br />But here Youth offers to Old Age the food,<br />The milk of his own gift: it is her Sire<br />To whom she renders back the debt of blood<br />Born with her birth:—No—he shall not expire<br />While in those warm and lovely veins the fire<br />Of health and holy feeling can provide<br />Great Nature's Nile, whose deep stream rises higher<br />Than Egypt's river:—from that gentle side<br />Drink—drink, and live—Old Man! Heaven's realm holds no such tide..."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147393486014631294.post-51665357032153065912017-02-27T23:15:17.354-08:002017-02-27T23:15:17.354-08:00I've always (well, since the 1960's) enjoy...I've always (well, since the 1960's) enjoyed the "fact" that in the altar are the relics of San Nicola – that is Santa Claus/Father Christmas.Bo Lundinnoreply@blogger.com