Fiddler's Farewell/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!
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 day
Can push two thousand lagging years away.
See, how the tragic villas, one by one,
Like drowsy lizards creep into the sun.
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 wall—a girl's Greek face
Stared from the frieze! Between her and the skies
I hid the smoking mountain from her eyes.
Scoop ash from painted wall—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?
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 air
About its branches, that deceives
Lovers who chance to wander there.
At noon there is a midnight air
About its branches, that deceives
Lovers who chance to wander there.