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| Roman Empire Marsyas and Apollo among the Muses 1st-2nd century AD marble sarcophagus Galleria Doria Pamphilij, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Satyr 2nd century AD marble statue (detail) Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Achilles mourning the Death of Patroclus AD 160 marble sarcophagus (detail) Museo Archeologico Ostiense, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Achilles mourning the Death of Patroclus AD 160 marble sarcophagus (detail) Museo Archeologico Ostiense, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Aphrodite 1st century AD marble statue Antiquarium del Palatino, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Perseus with the Head of Medusa late 1st-early 2nd century AD marble statue (detail) Museo Archeologico Ostiense, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Father and Daughter AD 130-140 marble statue group (heads and bodies assembled from non-matching sculptures) Galleria Borghese, Rome |
Mr. Extinction, Meet Ms. Survival
They're always whispering:
missing buttons, crow's-feet,
rust –
and I try to ignore them at first,
but they keep it up:
half-soles, dry rot,
biopsies, Studebakers –
that does it,
and I have to yell back:
virgin wool! fresh coffee! tennis balls!
new pennies! robins!
and that holds them a while,
but they always come again,
sometimes at night, sometimes
in crowded elevators: loose shingles,
they whine, soil erosion, migraines,
dented fenders. I hold my ears
and shout: high tide! fresh bread!
new shoes! oranges! and people around me nod
and straighten their shoulders and smile,
and I think for a moment I've won –
but of course you never win,
and it gets to be almost a game:
they give me oil spills,
sewage sludge, tobacco smoke;
I come back with swimming pools,
butterflies, cornfields!
They give me Calcutta,
Gary, Coney Island;
I rattle off Windermere,
Isfahan, Bloomington – but
by the time I'm at work
it gets serious, all
lapsed memberships and auto graveyards
and partial dentures and sub-
committees and leaves in the eaves,
and right there at my desk I bellow:
daffodils! and sailboats! and Burgundy!
and limestone! and birch trees! and robins,
damn it, robins! and my boss
pats me on the shoulder, and my secretary
takes it in shorthand, and everywhere
efficiency doubles, I'm doing it, after all,
for them. And yet,
deep down, I know, in fact,
it's no more daffodils than it's half-soles –
what it really is,
is morning without a hangover
but a fifty percent chance of rain,
it's a cost-of-living raise
and a slight case of heartburn; well,
we all know about
the slow leak, the scratch
on our favorite record,
the 7:12 forty minutes late, sure –
but passenger pigeons? Studebakers? That's
going too far,
we have our pride, our good
intentions, our metabolism, we won't
be shunted off with clipper ships
and whooping cranes, we're going
to hang in there, all of us, because
the robins may be showing wear,
but still, by god,
they are robins.
– Philip Appleman (1978)
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| Roman Empire Head of a Goddess 1st-2nd century AD marble Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Colossal Bust of Augustus as Alexander the Great early 1st century AD marble Aurelian Wall, Via Campania, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Colossal Male Head 2nd century AD marble Castel Sant' Angelo, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Colossal Male Head 2nd century AD marble Castel Sant' Angelo, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Head of Apollo 2nd-3rd century AD marble Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Cult Statue, possibly Asclepius 2nd century AD marble statue (fragment) Museo Archeologico Ostiense, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Lion Hunt AD 220-230 marble sarcophagus (detail) Palazzo Mattei, Rome |
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| Roman Empire Horse Tamer (one of the Dioscuri di Montecavallo) 1st century AD colossal marble statue group Quirinal Hill, Rome |