The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel by Louis Daguerre (1824)

The bone-chilling spring rain fell upon the wind worn stones of the ruin
Melting away the ice and the snow which blanketed the dead tower
The water which slowly seeped into the stone leaking out through the cracks
Another year’s detritus pooling in the corners where once nobles talked
Some ancient lords and ladies once gathered in this hall to hold court
As the looked down the hill at the serf’s slaving in the fields to sow the seed
Believing the order would stand like one stone placed upon another
That mortar and stone would hold back the threatening winds
Keeping them safe and warm within sheltering arms of the mighty fortress
But now nothing remains of that long dead world but the shattered stones
Serving as the grave marker of their neatly ordered world where they reigned
For the king is dead, the queen is gone, no knights or archers protect the kingdom
As the earth reclaims the stone that was taken from her womb and placed on a hill
Now the soil raises up its green memorial as life emerges in the midst of death

O, what stories would these stones tell, of wars waged and blood spilt
For within the ghostly shadows there is a haunted air that hangs
To examine the dust that has fallen from these stones is to find fear
The fear of a world that has reached its end as time marched mercilessly
Terror of those who thought their way would last forever and still
The world has moved on bringing with it the ending of the old order
For the foundations have been shaken, the towers have fallen
No more does the warrior defend the reign and the old ones are forgotten
Demons and devils now dance in the abandoned bones of the castle
And feast upon the unwitting traveler who dares to come too close
By the rivers that once watered the fertile field that spread below
But now only feed the creatures brave enough to enter into the wasteland
We sat down and we wept as we remembered our Zion our home long lost
Now a haunt to jackals and a home to vultures and the lost dreams of yesterday