Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Pompeii | | Pompeii | | John Bruce Norton (1815–1883) |
| | | BRIGHT was the sky and blue the sea, when I | |
| On the paved causeway of Pompeii stood, | |
| Perplexed at my amazing solitude: | |
| The silent forum, open to the sky, | |
| The empty barracks of the soldiery, | 5 |
| The stone mills fixed to grind the daily food, | |
| The houses of the rich and poorer brood, | |
| Bath, temple, theatre, I sauntered by. | |
| Surely, methought, the folk hath left its home | |
| But for excursion or high holiday; | 10 |
| And soon shall I behold them swarming back, | |
| Like busy bees that buzz about their comb, | |
| Or those gregarious birds whose aery track | |
| Instinctive, nestward, points their evening way. | | | | |
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