Classic Poem

I. Reference to a Passage in Plutarch's Life of Sulla

The people buying and selling, consuming pleasures, talking in the archways,
Were all suddenly struck quiet
And ran from under stone to look up at the sky: so shrill and mournful,
So fierce and final, a brazen
Pealing of trumpets high up in the air, in the summer blue over Tuscany.
They marvelled; the soothsayers answered:
" Although the Gods are little troubled toward men, at the end of each period
A sign is declared in heaven
Indicating new times, new customs, a changed people; the Romans
Rule, and Etruria is finished;
A wise mariner will trim the sails to the wind. "

I heard yesterday
So shrill and mournful a trumpet-blast.
It was hard to be wise. ... You must eat change and endure: not be much troubled
For the people; they will have their happiness.
When the republic grows too heavy to endure, then Caesar will carry it;
When life grows hateful, there's power ...