Where Theseus fought and Sappho dreamed
In eons ere they touched this land,
And found their proud souls foot and hand
Bound to the flesh and stung with pain.
An ugly skeleton it seem'd
Of its own self. The fiery rain
Of red volcanoes here had sown
The death of cities of the plain.
The very devastation gleamed.
All burnt and black, and rent and seam'd,