Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Etna (Ætna), the Mountain | | Etna | | Virgil (70–19 B.C.) |
| | (From Æneid, Book III) Translated by C. P. Cranch
THE PORT is large, | |
| And sheltered from the winds. But Ætna near, | |
| With frightful desolation roars, at times | |
| Sending up bursts of black clouds in the air, | |
| With rolling smoke of pitch, and flashing sparks, | 5 |
| And globes of flame that lick the very stars. | |
| Then, from the bowels of the mountain torn, | |
| Huge stones are hurled, and melted rocks heaped up, | |
| A roaring flood of fire. ’T is said that here | |
| Enceladus, half blasted by the bolts | 10 |
| Of heaven, was thrust beneath the mountainous mass; | |
| And mighty Ætna, piled above, sends forth | |
| His fiery breathings from the broken flues; | |
| And every time he turns his weary sides, | |
| All Sicily groans and trembles, and the sky | 15 |
| Is wreathed in smoke. | | | | |
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