The Fall of Rome

[altariel]

hardrada, here is the poem I was failing to remember yesterday.



The piers are pummelled by the waves;
In a lonely field the rain
Lashes an abandoned train;
Outlaws fill the mountain caves.

Fantastic grow the evening gowns;
Agents of the Fisc pursue
Absconding tax-defaulters through
The sewers of provincial towns.

Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.

Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extol the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.

Caesar's double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.

Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.

-- W.H. Auden

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Iain read it out after you had left; wish you had been there, it was very moving.

It makes me ask some profound questions, not least 'how the hell do you pronounce cerebrotonic' :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Sorry I had to leave early and miss that :-(

Profound questions here too, such as 'is cerebrotonic *really* a word'?

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

According to the OED, cerebrotonic describes an introverted, intellectual and emotionally restrained personality, and is pronounced with a soft initial "c".

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Did it say where the stress was put? CER-ebrotonic or ce-REB-rotonic?