Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Pompeii
By Thomas Gold Appleton (1812–1884)T
Long speechless streets, whose stepping-stones invite
Feet which shall never come; to left and right
Gay colonnades and courts,—beyond the glee,
Heartless, of that forgetful Pagan sea;
On roofless homes and waiting streets the light
Lies with a pathos sorrowfuller than night.
Fancy forbids this doom of Life with Death
Wedded, and with her wand restores the Life.
The jostling throngs swarm, animate, beneath
The open shops, and all the tropic strife
Of voices, Roman, Greek, Barbarian, mix. The wreath
Indolent hangs on far Vesuvius’ crest;
And over all the glowing town and guiltless sea, sweet rest.