Roman

Now, to the faint clink of swords

And organ snarling of the twisted tubas,

Rome throws out white veins of roads to bleed the world.

Over the castled wall in Britain

Pea-sized rocks are tossed to crush

The ant men in the furze.

Eagles over S. P. Q. R. change to crosses over I. H. S.

Then, as the city-heart withdraws its blood,

Cities flare into the midnight sky;

The flames of villas taste the stars;

Moonlight floods the empty cups of amphitheatres;

Hun fire glitters in the Parthenon;

And silence settles upon the northern hemisphere.

Oval script of giants

Punctuated by ruin-

Words of the ruined aqueduct

March with the letters of arches

Over the page of Campagnia

Into the Alban Hills.