……After the Anglo-Saxon
These wondrous wall-works, fate’s ways wrecked them–
……the buildings blasted, colossal labors crumbled,
roof-beams raining down, and tallest towers toppled
……with each ashen shaft. Frost on every frieze,
the wind-shelters, shattered, were desecrated by age.
……Ground’s grip seized the grave-hoven makers
in earth’s firm grasp, everyone, ever, gone for good.
…… And so, they run red, the lichen-mortared halls,
high and wide, reign after reign withstanding storms,
…… until they too were all doggedly driven down.
Though muddled in muck, some spirit still persists
…… of the keenly crafted work, each ring wrought
as to unfurl a fortress, this one so finely fashioned
…… it would gird together the whole of what’s-gone.
They must have been brilliant, the buildings and baths,
…… raucous crowds clamoring in rooms to drink
under vaulting ceilings, until what comes scuttled all.
…… All over the fighters fell, plague days followed
to trample every remnant who would take a stand,
…… the sacred places shuddered to their footings—
this realm laid waste. The ones who would raise it
…… also sank into clay. So, from somber domes
of vaulted wooden rings, the shed tiles scattered
…… their scarlet: eminence into mounds, shards
where once-gathered throngs, glamorous, glittered,
…… splendidly adorned, glad of good-fortune,
well-flush with wine and self-wonder, their wealth
…… flaunted like medallions plundered from war—
the gold, the silver, the precious jewels and stones,
…… no city out of reach of this realm’s radiance.
Where a steaming stream welled, spreading widely,
…… the stone hall stood, all the baths bubbling,
and its walls enwound them like a bright womb
…… that held and heated them at the very heart.
All was as it was. Let it run on, this hot current
…… over pale-worn stone, like ink disappeared
from scraps of a blistered page illegible in the ruin.
…… This, too, in effacement, is no negligible thing.