MOTECUHZOMA
            They say the first, inchoate age of man
            Met its demise by monsters from the earth,
            The second, brought extinct through violent winds, 
            The third by fire, the fourth by worldwide floods. 
            This fifth and final age, as we all know,
            By earthquakes’ rampant motion shall dissolve. 
            And yet, who could foresee this cataclysm
            Would find its epicenter in this room?
            For now my oscillation shakes the realm,
            My rattling teeth, my quivering, palsied hands, 
            The fearful quaking of my feeble knees,
            So agitates the contents of the earth
            To pitch its crust in spasms to a wrack,
            And crack the planetary fundament.
            Ach, what a bandied shuttlecock I’ve been!
            But from henceforth, by heaven’s crowded hall, 
            I’ll shake my feeble fears, or rattle all.                     *Exit.