Catania

Thou buried city, o'er thy site I muse! —
What! does no monumental stone remain
To say, "Here yawned the earthquake-riven plain,
Here stood Catania, and here Syracuse"?
Along thy sad and solitary sand
I seek thee in thyself, yet find instead
Naught but the dreadful stillness of the dead.
Startled and horror-struck, I wondering stand,
And cry: O, terrible, tremendous course
Of God's decrees! I see it, and I feel it here:
Shall I not comprehend and dread its force?
Rise, ye lost cities! let your ruins rear
Their massy forms on high, portentous corse,
That trembling ages may behold and fear!