- description
- # THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES
## Overview
"THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES" is a chapter within [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H) by Herman Melville. This poem reflects on the era of the Antonine emperors, a period of relative peace and prosperity in the Roman Empire. The chapter was extracted from the source file [john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4).
## Context
This poem is part of the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It appears in *John Marr and Other Poems* between the poems "THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS" and "HERBA SANTA".
## Contents
The poem "THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES" consists of four stanzas. It idealizes the time of the Antonine emperors, contrasting it with the perceived turmoil of modern Europe. The poem praises the pagan gentlemen who reigned during that era, the peace and justice they maintained, and the reasoned discourse that characterized their society. It also highlights the social order and respect for law that prevailed. The poem concludes with a yearning for a restoration of such an age in America.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:11.543Z
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- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES
- end_line
- 1840
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:32.310Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1796
- text
- THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES
While faith forecasts millennial years
Spite Europe’s embattled lines,
Back to the Past one glance be cast—
The Age of the Antonines!
O summit of fate, O zenith of time
When a pagan gentleman reigned,
And the olive was nailed to the inn of the world
Nor the peace of the just was feigned.
A halcyon Age, afar it shines,
Solstice of Man and the Antonines.
Hymns to the nations’ friendly gods
Went up from the fellowly shrines,
No demagogue beat the pulpit-drum
In the Age of the Antonines!
The sting was not dreamed to be taken from death,
No Paradise pledged or sought,
But they reasoned of fate at the flowing feast,
Nor stifled the fluent thought,
We sham, we shuffle while faith declines—
They were frank in the Age of the Antonines.
Orders and ranks they kept degree,
Few felt how the parvenu pines,
No law-maker took the lawless one’s fee
In the Age of the Antonines!
Under law made will the world reposed
And the ruler’s right confessed,
For the heavens elected the Emperor then,
The foremost of men the best.
Ah, might we read in America’s signs
The Age restored of the Antonines.
HERBA SANTA
I
- title
- THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES