John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.
Appendix I. Early and Uncollected VersesThe Earthquake
C
O’er Scylla’s shatter’d walls;
How desolate that silent town!
How tenantless the halls,
Where yesterday her thousands trod,
And princes graced their proud abode!
Humbled in anguish now,
The despot, midst his menial band,
Bent down his kingly brow;
And prince and peasant knelt in prayer,
For grief had made them equal there.
The earthquake roll’d its car:
Lowly the castle-towers were borne,
That mock’d the storms of war;
The mountain reeled, its shiver’d brow
Went down among the waves below.
As the wave’s rush was heard:
The horror of those fated men
Was uttered by no word.
But closer still the mother prest
The infant to her faithful breast.
Full mighty in despair;
As bow’d to drink death’s bitter cup,
The thousands gathered there;
And man’s strong wail, and woman’s cry
Blent as the waters hurried by.
The mountains felt its shock,
As the long cry of agony
Thrills thro’ their towers of rock;
An echo round that fatal shore,
The death wail of the sufferers bore.
Its light upon the scene,
Where tower and palace strew’d the earth
With wrecks of what had been.
But of the thousands who were gone,
No trace was left, no vestige shown.