The Quotable Whole: Rome Grew Ready

By Cosmic Poet Simon Pole

Admiral Radio image by Joe Haput CC BY

Rome Grew Ready

Any rube from Spain or Gaul,
Covered in an ox-hide caul,
Could in camp or palace rise,
By the people undespised.

On the roads his letters sent,
Stage by stage the horses spent,
Which the breadth of Rome traverse,
Bearing praises, or its curse.

So the Romans, so the state,
When a star, declaring fate,
At an inn burnt overhead,
And straw was the infant’s bed.

from Rome Grew Ready, Like a Lamb: Collected Sacred Verse.