Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.
Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extol the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.
Caesar's double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.
Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.
Auden is here suggesting that the problems of modern civilization and humanity in general are rooted in wealth. Our greed is poisonous. 
 The serene birds that are without wealth and civilization feel no pity for our self-destructive behavior.
The Fall of Rome