Hadrian's Wall

                                                         Hadrian’s Wall

At last I could make it out

A narrow walkway

Rising from the grasping earth

Loose and crumbled stones

Tumbled from once-good order

And straight alignment

Random fallen

Among coarsest tussocks

Of grass and mossy ground

 

Out here on the stormswept moor

Leagues from civilisation

Amongst ice and bitter cold

Lie lichen-covered blocks

In faint traceable patterns

Which snake and wind their way

Across the louring landscape

 

Here sits long-abandoned evidence

Of mouldering ramparts, towers, turrets

Interrupting the regular line

And there a garrison fortress

Perhaps provided simple shelter

And some rough respite

Haven against adverse weather

And painted barbarians

Invading from the North

 

But is this all that’s left?

So little sign these days

Of the forbidding Roman structure

Only the merest thin grey line

Of no great height

Threading through the frozen land

To be defended at all costs

By shivering Legionnaires

At the very end of Empire

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2022