Roman Stone

Mark out the ground
Lay claim to the land
Level the valleys
Build a bridge across the water
New walls for the city
New roads through the hills
New stories to be written
And legends to be made-

Now look upon their works (Under a different sky)
Half a world away

Farmers and soldiers
From the fields to the frontline
Return home with new gods (Taken from another)
The last day of kings
Broken, made whole again
Made stronger with stone (And blood and bone)

Now look upon their works (Under a different sky)
Half a world away
A wall across the land
Ruins made by giants
Still standing after storms

Sail the rivers and the seas
Cross the mountains and the plains
Explorers and soldiers (Merchants of fire)
Bring peace of a kind, an absence of war

Fetching water from the hills
Throwing buildings up to the skies
Make iron for the ploughshares and weapons of war
Trade new gods for old gods, make them their own

(All things must pass)
(Dawn down to dusk)
(All stories have an ending)
The first and the last

Eagles taking flight
Carriers of light
Three thousand miles from the wall to the water
The generals of empire bring riches of war

(All things must pass)
(Dawn down to dusk)
(All stories have an ending)
The first and the last
The last

(Outside of these walls) Outside of these walls
(Great armies will rise) Great armies will rise
(New orders are born) New orders are born
(And cities will fall) And cities will fall

Here at the end of all roads
Broken in a scatter of stone
A thousand years have passed
Lights are dimmed and fires burn cold

Time has weathered the walls
As rain is the ruin of snow

Far now from the centre of it all
Distant from the highways and heartlands
An eagle gone to ground
With the better part of mankind

Now shadows that shelter behind
Fifty feet of wall
Twelve miles and more

Here were legends born
Here were stories made and told
In one city the whole world ends
As a tumbledown of walls
(Its stones) the bedrock of us all