Classic Poem

Men say there was a town here long ago,
A tarnished buckle clasping sea and weald;
Though none remembers now, and none may know
What time, or how, the waters came and sealed
Market and church and hall in fluid jade.
But still, men say, when the loud norther swells,
From towers long since forgotten, but undecayed,
There comes a watery music as of bells.

Over the empty city in your heart
Pour the dark waters, merciful and opaque.
Build you new towers, and wage in stall and mart
A furious commerce for oblivion's sake.
No bruit of horns and wheels, of power and pride,
Can still the clamor of bells beneath the tide.