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Rh Take through eternity thy course, and then Tell me of where she is, what is her state? Happy or miserable? or again, We should rejoice in, or lament her fate? To thee I may repeat it, others gay Will laugh at my dark fancy; not long past The time I was by that enchanting bay Of the Tyrrhenian sea; the city vast, Mother of pleasures, I forsook, and bent, Absorbed, my feeble steps, where lowly lies Pompeii; palaces with gardens blent And fountains brilliant, shone before my eyes; But deeper penetrates the mind, and sad, Slowly along I went with heavy heart: Flowers amid lava grew! and rich, and glad Today the scenes on every side impart The towns and villages, which others hide That stood as happy there a former day; Those now that flourish built up by the side Of some forgotten that have passed away. At length I came where we the walls descry Of the deserted city, which the abode Proclaim'd it was of men in times gone by; Their sepulchres stood bordering the road!