Poem by Arthur Henry Adams

Nemesis

All things must fade. There is for cities tall
The same tomorrow 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 over 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 epigraph upon the desert scrawls.

1. On the Sands
2. Fleet Street
3. Civilization
4. Bereft
5. Written in Australia

Aubrey De Vere Nemesis ("I DREAMED. Great bells around me pealed")

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