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

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EMPEDOCLES ON ETNA.

A DRAMATIC POEM.


PERSONS.

Empedocles.
Pausanias, a Physician.
Callicles, a young Harp-player.

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


ACT I.

Scene 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,