conversation among the ruins

Fractured pillars frame prospects of rock;
While you stand heroic in coat and tie, I sit
Composed in Grecian tunic and psyche-knot.
Rooted to your black look, the play turned tragic:
With such blight wrought on our bankrupt estate.
What ceremony of words can patch the havoc?

-Sylvia Plath, "A Conversation Among the Ruins," 1956.
-Photo: Harper Smith for Fashion Gone Rogue.