III.

Now by the glimm’ring torch’s ray

I tread Pozzuoli’s cavern’d way—

Hollow grot! that might beseem

Th’ Ætnean cyclop, Polypheme:

And here the bat at noonday ’bides,

And here the houseless beggar hides,

While the holy hermit’s voice

Glads me with accustom’d noise.

Now I trace, or trav’llers err,