POEM-The Ruin

The Ruin

Wrought-like are those wall-stones;       Wyrd, which had broken –

bolstered city burst –                 embrowning of giants’ work.

roofs sink, are wrecked,            ruined are the towers,

grime-gate bereft,                     grime-ice on limestone,

5          shard of shower-block               shorn and dropping,

old and undereaten.                   Earth-grasp has the

worker-wielder,            forweary, learing, gone

hard to gripping crust,               until a hundred kinships

of warrior-throngs went. Oft this wall awaited

10        rag-haired and red-faced           - this Reich after others

oft-stood under storms; this steep sweep is dropping.

wont yet the wall-stone by weather hewn

fel on…………………………………………………

grimly ground………………………………………

15        …………………shone she……………………

………………g ur-thought       ere-craft………………

………………………g loam-rinds bowed

mood mo……………   ………yne swiftly braided

wrought in rings,                      rare of bond-

20        walls wrapped with wires          wonderfully together.

            burnished were the bolstered                 brook-halls, many

            high and horn-strong                 heart-song martial,

            mead-halls many                      a man’s dream full

            until that unwound                    with Wyrd the swift.

25        Cringed the wailing wide,         came the days of wilt

            death all forwasted                   adorned swordsmen;

            became their war-stalls waste-states,

            and browned buildings. Builders cringed,

            armies into crust.                      For then those courts grew dreary

30        and this tiver-sweep -                tiles shed from it -

            the roost-bow’s roof.                 The ruin to ground clanged,

            broken to blocks,                      where once the born many,

            in glad-mood and gold-bright,   with gleams fraught,

            with loft and wine-gall, in war-gear shone;

35        saw the riches, and silver,         and searing-gems,

            and wealth, and aught,  and worked-stones,

            and this bright building of broad reaches.

            stonehouses stood,                    the heat-stream warped,

            widely whelming                      within the wall, all befenced,

40        the bright bosom,                      where the baths were,

            hot in the heart.            That was high-like.

            let on, then, out-tun………………………………

            over hoar stone             the hot streams

            un………………………………………………

45        …ththat ring-mere                    heat…………

            ………………………………where the baths were.

            then is …………………………………………

            ……………………re;  that is a kingly thing,

            house………………………………build…………