Ruins of a Great House

“Ruins of a Great House” places great emphasis on history and the passage of time. The speaker witnesses to the progression of time as he walks the estate's grounds, noting the rot, decay, erosion, and overgrowth of nature. The soil seems to be swallowing up the artifacts left behind (“Axle and coach wheel silted under the muck,” Line 5). Even though the great house represents a specific time in history, the poem is less about one singular historical period and more about the progression to the present moment. The epigraph highlights this theme of cyclical history, as Thomas Browne’s work ponders the practices and lifestyles of pre-colonized Anglo-Saxons following the unearthing of Anglo-Saxon pottery in the 1600s. The speaker observes the crumbling estate's beauty as “deciduous” (Line 14), emphasizing both its the cyclical nature of its beauty and its impermanence. Like the cycle of seasons, history is a cycle that repeats itself: Rome colonized England, England colonized the Caribbean. In the same vein, the Roman Empire fell, and so did the British. It is beautiful because it lives only for a short time and then disappears. In this way, all empires are deciduous; they all eventually fall like leaves in autumn.