122 POMPEII. 



How fair the scene ! even now to Fancy's gaze 

 Return the shadowy forms of other days : 

 Those halls, of old with mirth and music rife, 

 Those echoing streets that teem'd with joyous life, 

 The stately towers that rose along the plain, 

 And the light barks that swept yon silvery main. 

 And see I they meet beneath the chestnut shades, 

 Pompeii's joyous sons and graceful maids, 

 Weave the light dance — the rosy chaplet twine, 

 Or snatch the cluster from the weary vine; 

 Nor think that Death can haunt so fair a scene, 

 The Heaven's deep blue, , the Earth's unsullied green. 

 Devoted City ! could not aught avail 

 When the dark omen* told thy fearful tale ? 

 The giant phantom dimly seen to glide, 

 And the loud voice that shook f the mountain-side, 

 , With warning tones that bade thy children roam. 

 To seek in happier climes a calmer home ? 

 In vain ? they will not break the fatal rest 

 That woos them to the mountain's treacherous breast 

 Fond memory blends with every mossy stone 

 Some early joy, some tale of pleasure flown ; 

 And they must die where those around will weep, 

 And sleep for ever where their fathers sleep. 

 Yes ! they must die : behold ! yon gathering gloom 

 Brings on the fearful silence of the tomb; 

 Along Campania's sky yon murky cloud 

 Spreads its dark form — a City's funeral shroud. 



How brightly rose Pompeii's latest day ! J 

 The Sun, unclouded, held his golden way, — 

 Vineyards, in Autum's purple glories drest. 

 Slept in soft beauty on the mountain's breast : 

 The gale that wanton'd round his crested brow, 

 Shook living fragrance from the blossom'd bough ; 

 And many a laughing mead and silvery stream 

 Drank the deep lustre of the noonday beam : 

 Then echoing Music rang, and Mirth grew loud 

 In the glad voices of the festal crowd ; 



• Dio Cassias, Ixvi. relates, that, previously to the destruction of the city, 

 figures of gigantic size were seen hovering in the air, and that a voice like the 

 sound of a trumpet was often heard. Probably the imagination of the inha- 

 bitants invested with human figure the vapours that preceded the eruption. 



+ Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentes 

 Ingcns ; et simulacra modis pallentia miris 

 Visa sab obscurnm noctis. 



Georc. i. 476 



X Pompeii was destroyed on the 23rd of August, A. D. 79. See Plinii Epist. 

 J. vi. 16. 20; Dio Cassius, Ixvi. It remained undiscovered during fifteen 

 centuries. 



I 



