When everything trembles, only love holds it together.
Rome is an act of the will, but the leaf protects us.
Day after day, year after year, Rome with its stony walls and
statues is built above a cage of wolves.
But love is not an act of the will.

The Leaf and the Marble is an extended love poem. Beginning with a holiday in Italy, the poetry is transformed by passion and place into a meditation on the founding legends of the Classical world. Dido and Aeneas play a central role, the world of nature and the world of man are sharply contrasted. Rome and its empire were founded on the denial of love: the poet's task is to write love back.