From "Elegy on a Pile of Ruins" by John Cunningham

These are only the first three stanzas, since the whole poem is super long. However, if you have enough patience, feel free to look it up and continue reading!

In the full prospect yonder hill commands,
O'er barren heaths and cultivated plains;
The vestige of an ancient abbey stands,
Close by a ruin'd castle's rude remains.

Half buried, there lie many a broken bust,
And obelisk, and urn, o'erthrown by Time;
And many a cherub, there, descends in dust
From the rent roof, and portico sublime.

The rivulets, oft frighted at the sound
Of fragments tumbling from the tow'rs on high,
Plung'd to their source in secret caves profound,
Leaving their banks and pebbly bottoms dry.