Ancient Lights, Martin Newell

By ruined Roman brickwork
In cold October air
Past Michaelmas, on Beryfield
They held St Dennis Fair
Now damsels dance down Queen St
And meet their modern knights
While trains come into Colchester
Beneath these ancient lights

On early Norman arches
The blue-eyed jackdaws perch
Above those cloistered shadows
Behind the Gothic church
A greensward for their carpet
They gaze down from the heights
For alms the tourists leave them
Beneath these ancient lights

Below St Botolph's Circus
Under the traffic's roar
The souls of nameless soldiers
Go back and forth to war
In court each winter morning
The sun reads out his rights
The prisoner stands there, yawning
And longs for ancient lights

While medieval rooftops
Stare up at steel and glass
The past reminds the future
To let the present pass
When August flirts with autumn
And starry are the nights
And Colchester lies twinkling
Among the ancient lights