All things must fade. There is for cities tall
The same to-morrow as for daffodils:
Time's wind, that casts the seed, the petal spills.
Grim London's ruined arches yet shall fall
Back to the arms of Earth. A quiet pall
The mother draws o'er those she loves --- and kills;
And though brief nations vaunt their upstart wills,
The nemesis of grass shall cover all.
So -- from a caravan to Mecca bound
Getting no more than one incurious glance ---
Tremendous Babylon, thrice-girt with walls,
Sick of her thousand years of arrogance,
With a few tamarisks upon a mound
Her epitaph upon the desert scrawls.
First published in The Lone Hand, 1 December 1910;
and later in
The Collected Verses of Arthur H. Adams, 1913; and
An Australasian Anthology: Australian and New Zealand Poems edited by Percival Serle, R. H. Croll, and Frank Wilmot, 1927.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
The same to-morrow as for daffodils:
Time's wind, that casts the seed, the petal spills.
Grim London's ruined arches yet shall fall
Back to the arms of Earth. A quiet pall
The mother draws o'er those she loves --- and kills;
And though brief nations vaunt their upstart wills,
The nemesis of grass shall cover all.
So -- from a caravan to Mecca bound
Getting no more than one incurious glance ---
Tremendous Babylon, thrice-girt with walls,
Sick of her thousand years of arrogance,
With a few tamarisks upon a mound
Her epitaph upon the desert scrawls.
First published in The Lone Hand, 1 December 1910;
and later in
The Collected Verses of Arthur H. Adams, 1913; and
An Australasian Anthology: Australian and New Zealand Poems edited by Percival Serle, R. H. Croll, and Frank Wilmot, 1927.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
