More than a little Eliot and Shelley in there I think 
The Roman remains
The Roman empire gone now
and all the times before
are gone now, gone now in the air
the marvellous monuments
the nasty emperors gone too
Caligula the crazy one
Commodus the pretend gladiator
Nero who killed his mother
they all disappeared in the blink of an eye
the remains standing there empty
In Rome two vast and trunkless legs of stone
stand in the city
near them on the paving slabs a shattered visage lies
survive yet stamped on those lifeless things
the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed
and on the pedestal these words appear
“My name is Pompey, general of generals, look upon my works ye mighty and despair”
the lone and level shops stretch far away
