Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Appendix: Etna, the Mountain | | Etna | | Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
| | (From Empedocles on Etna. Act II) |
|
THROUGH the black, rushing smoke-bursts | |
| Thick breaks the red flame; | |
| All Etna heaves fiercely | |
| Her forest-clothed frame. | |
| |
| Not here, O Apollo! | 5 |
| Are haunts meet for thee. | |
| But where Helicon breaks down | |
| In cliff to the sea, | |
| |
| Where the moon-silvered inlets | |
| Send far their light voice | 10 |
| Up the still vale of Thisbe, | |
| O, speed, and rejoice! | |
| |
| On the sward at the cliff-top | |
| Lie strewn the white flocks; | |
| On the cliff-side the pigeons | 15 |
| Roost deep in the rocks; | |
| |
| In the moonlight the shepherds, | |
| Soft lulled by the rills, | |
| Lie wrapt in their blankets, | |
| Asleep on the hills. | 20 |
| |
| What forms are these coming | |
| So white through the gloom? | |
| What garments out-glistening | |
| The gold-flowered broom? | |
| |
| What sweet-breathing presence | 25 |
| Outperfumes the thyme? | |
| What voices enrapture | |
| The night’s balmy prime? | |
| |
| ’T is Apollo comes leading | |
| His choir, the Nine. | 30 |
| The leader is fairest, | |
| But all are divine. | |
| |
| They are lost in the hollows! | |
| They stream up again! | |
| What seeks on this mountain | 35 |
| The glorified train? | |
| |
| They bathe on this mountain, | |
| In the spring by their road; | |
| Then on to Olympus, | |
| Their endless abode! | 40 |
| |
| Whose praise do they mention? | |
| Of what is it told? | |
| What will be forever; | |
| What was from of old. | |
| |
| First hymn they the Father | 45 |
| Of all things; and then | |
| The rest of immortals, | |
| The action of men. | |
| |
| The day in his hotness, | |
| The strife with the palm; | 50 |
| The night in her silence, | |
| The stars in their calm. | | | |
|
|
|
