Tag: the roman empire

• Drowned in the Nile to renew a Tiberside tyrant’s flagging vigour, or Emperor Hadrian’s lost love poems

  Aquila at nighttime zenith His toga peeled back appealingly, revealing Antinous’s yet-congealing future features His fallow chin without shadow of beard’s hint Hadrian’s preying gaze ere surveillant Signalled a willingness to be availed Of; he the idle cat His captor the long rows of well bedded mint. By dint his status, a rustic Below but…

  alchemisland

  8th May 2026

  Filí my pockets

  alchemisland, ancient rome, antinous, creative writing, hadrian, love, paganism, poem, poetry, relationships, roman emperors, rome, the roman empire

• An examination of force

  Long gone the days  Of legions unafraid  Chasing Mithridates  From the city walls  To the shores of Euphrates. The scored shield of the gloried legion, Now a sprouting boundless must have edges found for it. The pitiless strength must be fitted With satin gloves more fitting For making love poetry Than subduing rebel tribes. This…

  alchemisland

  27th Apr 2026

  Filí my pockets

  alchemisland, art, creative writing, force, poem, poet, poetry, rome, the roman empire, violence, writing

• Natural boundaries

  The end of all rainbows Where mightiness ends Where mightier no longer lends itself To prolonging Rome. Let clefts  And shelves and sheets and seas  And peaks and marshes rank with disease  Mark borders, beyond which no Roman feet  No roman fleets  No roman steels Shall seek to steal Or impose leanmaking tithes  A screaming…

  alchemisland

  24th Apr 2026

  Filí my pockets

  alchemisland, art, creative writing, empire, poem, poet, poetry, rome, the roman empire, trajan, writing