In every runnel and crevice and slip and patch,

A powdery rubble of pumice, black and red,

Flakes of cooled lava and stones congealed from fire.

It was no dream. A butterfly spread its fans

White, veined with green, on a rock of sunlit slag,

Slag of the seething furnaces below.

They reached the summit; and, under them, beheld

The hollow cup, the crater, whence that flood

Out of the dreadful molten heart of the earth

Poured in red fury to create Auvergne.