Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/256

 EMPEDOCLES ON ETNA.

PERSONS.

The Scene of the Poem is on Mount Etna; at first in the forest region, afterwards on the summit of the mountain.

ACT I.

I.—Morning. A Pass in the forest region of Etna.

CALLICLES (alone, resting on a rock by the path).

The mules, I think, will not be here this hour:

They feel the cool wet turf under their feet

By the stream-side, after the dusty lanes

In which they have toiled all night from Catana,

And scarcely will they budge a yard. O Pan,

How gracious is the mountain at this hour!

A thousand times have I been here alone,

Or with the revellers from the mountain towns,

But never on so fair a morn. The sun

Is shining on the brilliant mountain crests,

And on the highest pines; but farther down,

Here in the valley, is in shade; the sward

Is dark, and on the stream the mist still hangs;

One sees one's footprints crushed in the wet grass,