The Last
Day of Pompeii
by: Henry O'Meara (1848-1904)
August 24,
A.D. 79.
Widespread
the centuries, like cinders down Vesuvia's side,
Have passed
o'er dead Pompeii since that last, that fatal tide
Of flame
and livid lava fell, enfolding thick in gloom
Her homes,
her pomp, her stricken site in one vast living tomb.
Festive the
day broke over broad Campania's plain and town,
And even
grim Vesuvius' brow for once forgot to frown,
While all
encircling hills exulted in the morning's breath,
When doomed
Pompeii's people thronged to glut their eyes on death.
Her gaudy
villas smiled above the mist and valley then,
Her
red-tiled roofs and time-worn towers rose young and gay again;
Forum and
stately arch of triumph shadowed naught of strife--
Portal and
crowning statue greeted laden streams of life.
Stay! for
despite their joy the prescient Pliny, wise as brave,
Forboding,
marks the trembling shore repel the tardy wave,
And
listening, hears with soul of awe, the murmur hoarse and deep
Along the
beauteous river's bank and laughing meadow creep!
"The
gods protect the guiltless! vengeful Orcus bursts with ire!"--
Swift the
velaria tent reveals the Mountain's rav'nous fire;
The
gladiator, quivering low, is left to rise or die--
Lions
athirst for life now turn, with human fear, to fly.
Night o'er
the realm of Noon with rushing blackness swoops on all,
Vesuvia's
vapor, shaped like pine trees, spreading as a pall;
In vain the
priest of Isis craves to light the sacred flame,
Vainly the
guard of Rome is nerved to body forth her name.
The late
Gomorrah, as the old, in ashes sinks at last--
Her day is
come, her doom is sealed,--her living power is past.
And yet
exhumed Pompeii lives again to tell her story--
Clearer
than Pliny's classic page to light her age and glory.
Thus oft
o'erpowering fate that seems to leave the heart forlorn
Serves but
to save the thought and worth for ages yet unborn,
As still
survives and speaks above her ashes and her woe
The city
burned and buried eighteen hundred years ago.
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