 | Mansoul or The Riddle of the World |  |
Terrific conflagration! whereunto
No flesh might more approach. Should, in such moment,
To a cinder, his mortal being be consumed!
No flesh might more approach. Should, in such moment,
To a cinder, his mortal being be consumed!
When next in downward flight for life, we halt
And glance back: hid from view is Ætnas height;
In bellowing gloom, of fiery uprolling smoke;
Wherefrom dart ceaseless quivering lightnings forth.
And glance back: hid from view is Ætnas height;
In bellowing gloom, of fiery uprolling smoke;
Wherefrom dart ceaseless quivering lightnings forth.
Was then from Ætnas cinder-flanks above;
Flowed down an horrid molten-footed flood;
Inévitable creeping lava-tide:
That licketh all up, before his withering course.
Nor builded work, nor rampire cast in haste;
Of thousand mens hands, might, and they were helped
Of unborn-Angels, súffice to hold back;
That devastating, soulless, impious march
Of molten dross.
Flowed down an horrid molten-footed flood;
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That licketh all up, before his withering course.
Nor builded work, nor rampire cast in haste;
Of thousand mens hands, might, and they were helped
Of unborn-Angels, súffice to hold back;
That devastating, soulless, impious march
Of molten dross.
Dwellers round Ætnas roots;
(His, four days' journeys round encompassing Plain:)
Roused by that fearful uproar and midnight noise;
From tottering bedsteads leapt, have rushed, half-clad,
Abroad.
(His, four days' journeys round encompassing Plain:)
Roused by that fearful uproar and midnight noise;
From tottering bedsteads leapt, have rushed, half-clad,
Abroad.
In silence, in awed knots, they watch;
Ætna from far-off, kindled in the skies;
(Such as years gone they heard their fathers tell!)
Whilst men gaze on, with cold and fainting hearts;
Folding their hands, with trembling lips, to Heaven:
Not few lament their toilful years, undone;
Those fields o'erwhelmed, wherein their livelihood.
Other enquire; if this were that last fire,
Divine; whose wrath, is writ, should end the world?
Ætna from far-off, kindled in the skies;
(Such as years gone they heard their fathers tell!)
Whilst men gaze on, with cold and fainting hearts;
Folding their hands, with trembling lips, to Heaven:
Not few lament their toilful years, undone;
Those fields o'erwhelmed, wherein their livelihood.
Other enquire; if this were that last fire,
Divine; whose wrath, is writ, should end the world?
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Groping in night-like gloom, to lower league:
'T is there we halt, where first found mens trode paths.
Ætna is raging ever more and more!
Uprushing wreathing, teeming train blown out
And spread large forth, cloud-canopy of Hellish smoke:
(Like to a pine tree, as that Siciliot quoth;)
Huge roaring fury of His Titanic throat:
O'er lurid glow of hidden fires beneath.
'T is there we halt, where first found mens trode paths.
Ætna is raging ever more and more!
Uprushing wreathing, teeming train blown out
And spread large forth, cloud-canopy of Hellish smoke:
(Like to a pine tree, as that Siciliot quoth;)
Huge roaring fury of His Titanic throat:
O'er lurid glow of hidden fires beneath.
Nor cease those vast heart-beats, in immane deeps
Of Ætna in travail: in this Circuit of
Worlds crust; as were it would Earth cast us forth.
Of Ætna in travail: in this Circuit of
Worlds crust; as were it would Earth cast us forth.
| Mansoul or The Riddle of the World | |