 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
Attend and learn:
I but record plain facts: these stab the deepest:
That Emperor's son, Arcadius, was a lack-wit:
Rufinus ruled his realm, the East: this aim
Was his, to bring to naught the Western Empire
Where reigned Honorius, not through hate of him
But hate of Stilicho, the youth's protector.
Rufinus was a Gaul, astute and pliant:
Rufinus was a traitor. From afar
He beckoned to the Hunnish tribes that roamed
The Caspian coasts: with Alaric next he trafficked:
He placed, in secret, Greece within his grasp:
By open pact he throned him in Illyria
And pointed thence to Rome. What help was hers?
Nobles of Rome, reply!
I but record plain facts: these stab the deepest:
That Emperor's son, Arcadius, was a lack-wit:
Rufinus ruled his realm, the East: this aim
Was his, to bring to naught the Western Empire
Where reigned Honorius, not through hate of him
But hate of Stilicho, the youth's protector.
Rufinus was a Gaul, astute and pliant:
Rufinus was a traitor. From afar
He beckoned to the Hunnish tribes that roamed
The Caspian coasts: with Alaric next he trafficked:
He placed, in secret, Greece within his grasp:
By open pact he throned him in Illyria
And pointed thence to Rome. What help was hers?
Nobles of Rome, reply!
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |