The Ruin

Gone are the coloured princes, gone echo, gone laughter:

Drips the blank roof: and the moss creeps after.

Dead is the crumbled chimney: all mellowed to rotting

The wall-tints, and the floor-tints, from the spotting

Of the rain, from the wind and slow appetite

Of patient mould: and of the worms that bite

At beauty all their innumerable lives.