Grey brick upon brick,
Declamatory bronze
On somber pedestals -
O'Connell, Grattan, Moore -
And the brewery tugs and the swans
On the balustraded stream
And the bare bones of a fanlight
Over a hungry door
And the air soft on the cheek
And porter running from the taps
With a head of yellow cream
And Nelson on his pillar
Watching his world collapse.
This never was my town,
I was not born or bred
Nor schooled here and she will not
Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), one of British history’s best known figures, is most celebrated for his daring naval victories during the Napoleonic Wars. Nelson’s Column was erected in order to commemorate the most famous of these, the battle of Trafalgar. It stands at  Trafalgar Square, Central London. 
 Attempts to immortalise Nelson were also made in Dublin. A similar monument, Nelson’s Pillar (pictured), was erected on Sackville St (on the site of the Spire, present day O'Connell St). However, to many Irish this was viewed as a symbol of British imperialism. 
 The ‘collapse’ referred to is the eventual end of British rule, after the attainment of independence in 1922. Although Nelson’s Pillar still occupied its central place long after independence was won, the society around it changed beyond recognition, and rapidly. 
 (It may be interesting to note that it would no longer be possible for Nelson to survey his world from the pedestal afforded him, as his statue was destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1966 [this poem was written in the 1930s].) 

Dublin