Chapter 32

Pompeii

Pompeii

SHE SINGS

So let us eat and drink, to singing and guitar,Before we pace the mournful streets where the gray houses are;Vesuvio, the guilty, leans lazy on the sky.The very gods are dead, my love—and we have still to die!

So let us eat and drink, to singing and guitar,Before we pace the mournful streets where the gray houses are;Vesuvio, the guilty, leans lazy on the sky.The very gods are dead, my love—and we have still to die!

So let us eat and drink, to singing and guitar,Before we pace the mournful streets where the gray houses are;Vesuvio, the guilty, leans lazy on the sky.The very gods are dead, my love—and we have still to die!

So let us eat and drink, to singing and guitar,

Before we pace the mournful streets where the gray houses are;

Vesuvio, the guilty, leans lazy on the sky.

The very gods are dead, my love—and we have still to die!

NEW EXCAVATIONS

A workman with a spade in half a dayCan push two thousand lagging years away.See, how the tragic villas, one by one,Like drowsy lizards creep into the sun.

A workman with a spade in half a dayCan push two thousand lagging years away.See, how the tragic villas, one by one,Like drowsy lizards creep into the sun.

A workman with a spade in half a dayCan push two thousand lagging years away.See, how the tragic villas, one by one,Like drowsy lizards creep into the sun.

A workman with a spade in half a day

Can push two thousand lagging years away.

See, how the tragic villas, one by one,

Like drowsy lizards creep into the sun.

I EXCAVATE

They let me play at digging in that place,Scoop ash from painted walls—a girl’s Greek faceStared from the frieze! Between her and the skiesI hid the smoking mountain from her eyes.

They let me play at digging in that place,Scoop ash from painted walls—a girl’s Greek faceStared from the frieze! Between her and the skiesI hid the smoking mountain from her eyes.

They let me play at digging in that place,Scoop ash from painted walls—a girl’s Greek faceStared from the frieze! Between her and the skiesI hid the smoking mountain from her eyes.

They let me play at digging in that place,

Scoop ash from painted walls—a girl’s Greek face

Stared from the frieze! Between her and the skies

I hid the smoking mountain from her eyes.

GREEK FRAGMENTS

These arching feet that trip their shattered dance,This satyr’s mocking mouth, the tumbled scroll,Straight thigh of boy, strong hand upon the lance:If these be fragments, tell me, what is whole?

These arching feet that trip their shattered dance,This satyr’s mocking mouth, the tumbled scroll,Straight thigh of boy, strong hand upon the lance:If these be fragments, tell me, what is whole?

These arching feet that trip their shattered dance,This satyr’s mocking mouth, the tumbled scroll,Straight thigh of boy, strong hand upon the lance:If these be fragments, tell me, what is whole?

These arching feet that trip their shattered dance,

This satyr’s mocking mouth, the tumbled scroll,

Straight thigh of boy, strong hand upon the lance:

If these be fragments, tell me, what is whole?

OLIVE TREE

Moonlight is always on its leaves;At noon there is a midnight airAbout its branches, that deceivesLovers who chance to wander there.

Moonlight is always on its leaves;At noon there is a midnight airAbout its branches, that deceivesLovers who chance to wander there.

Moonlight is always on its leaves;At noon there is a midnight airAbout its branches, that deceivesLovers who chance to wander there.

Moonlight is always on its leaves;

At noon there is a midnight air

About its branches, that deceives

Lovers who chance to wander there.


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