Chapter 7 No.7

Now they reach thee in their anger:

Fire and smoke and hellish clangour

Are around thee, thou world's wonder!

Death is in thy walls and under.

Now the meeting steel first clashes,

Downward then the ladder crashes,90

With its iron load all gleaming,

Lying at its foot blaspheming!

Up again! for every warrior

Slain, another climbs the barrier.

Thicker grows the strife: thy ditches

Europe's mingling gore enriches.

Rome! although thy wall may perish,

Such manure thy fields will cherish,

Making gay the harvest-home;

But thy hearths, alas! oh, Rome!-100

Yet be Rome amidst thine anguish,

Fight as thou wast wont to vanquish!