Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 36.djvu/301



within its cavern dire, Thunder conceals and liquid fire; On earth the fiery torrent pours, And its inhabitants devours, Your steps, afflicted Dryads, turn From dreary plains which always burn; Those caverns where hell seems to breathe In fire and sulphur from beneath; Those gulfs which to Tartarus bend, Their furious floods incessant send.

More fierce and terrible the Po Makes its fierce stream its banks o'erflow; Pours through the plain its furious waves, Foams, and with dreadful uproar raves: It spreads destruction through the plain, Fright, terror, death, compose its train; And through Ferrara's fire conveys The spoils of nations to the seas.

This war where elements contend, Which heaven's expanse with fury rend; These shocks from which all nature quakes, With which earth's solid basis shakes: Scourges of heaven which oft appear To hang o'er this sad hemisphere;