Respublica, By GEOFFREY HILL

The strident high

civic trumpeting

of misrule. It is

what we stand for.

Wild insolence,

aggregates without

distinction. Courage

of common men:

spent in the ruck

their remnants witness

after centuries

is granted them

like a pardon.

And other fealties

other fortitudes

broken as named--

Respublica

brokenly recalled,

its archaic laws

and hymnody;

and destroyed hope

that so many times

is brought with triumph

back from the dead.

From “Geoffrey Hill: New & Collected Poems, 1952-1992” by Geoffrey Hill. (Houghton Mifflin: $29.95) 1994 Reprinted by permission.