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Pompeii
Amidst the dwellings of a distant age,As by the enchanter's wand we seem to stand!
Science and Art illume the historic page,
And far-off scenes we view as near at hand.
Pompeii's daily life again appears,
The noble Roman sunk in pleasure, ease;
Forgot the virtues of his earlier years,
When manly toil and deeds alone could please.
So slumbered they; till, on their midnight sleep,
Vesuvius showered its dense and murky rain,
Burying their city 'neath its ashes deep,
Like the doomed cities of Gomorrah's plain!
Like them, still warning, in a voice sublime,
Proud cities filled with luxury and crime.
Poem No. 41; c. 16 October 1877
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