“Come hither, O Apollo!” Forth went the god,
When there uprose a nevious curling cloud,
Great in circumference, and six fathoms up,
Bulg’d at its sides, in form like as a cup,
Less at its base; and round about the same
There spread an horizontal ardent flame,
So great the heat, that not a soul could dare
Approach within ten fathoms of the flare:
And on the rim of this most mystic vase—
One fathom high—a bluish flame arose,