Vesuvius

On Saturday evening, Rowland Cooper, who won the Peter Dix Poetry Prize in 2006, read his latest poem 'Vesuvius' at the Poetry Speakeasy in the Ranelagh Arts Festival to a large and appreciative audience. It was inspired by his reading Robert Harris's novel Pompeii.

It starts :-

The windless air hangs on the shoulders

Like the packs of the legions

As they trudge in rank through the German forests.

Yet still the shores are pummelled

And dashed by waves vigorous

With expressionless violence.

The full poem is here.