The Song of Callicles

Mt Etna ---Through the black, rushing smoke-bursts, Thick breaks the red flame. All Etna heaves fiercely Her forest-clothed frame.

Matthew Arnold
(from Empedocles on Etna1)

Through the black, rushing smoke-bursts,

Thick breaks the red flame.

All Etna heaves fiercely

Her forest-clothed frame.

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Not here, O Apollo!

Are haunts meet for thee.

But, where Helicon breaks down

In cliff to the sea.

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Where the moon-silver’d inlets

Send far their light voice

Up the still vale of Thisbe,

O speed, and rejoice!

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On the sward at the cliff-top,

Lie strewn the white flocks;

On the cliff-side, the pigeons

Roost deep in the rocks.

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In the moonlight the shepherds,

Soft lull’d by the rills,

Lie wrapt in their blankets,

Asleep on the hills.

⋅

Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold2

—What forms are these coming

So white through the gloom?

What garments out-glistening

The gold-flower’d broom?

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What sweet-breathing Presence

Out-perfumes the thyme?

What voices enrapture

The night’s balmy prime?—

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‘Tis Apollo comes leading

His choir, The Nine.

—The Leader is fairest,

But all are divine.

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They are lost in the hollows.

They stream up again.

What seeks on this mountain

The glorified train?—

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They bathe on this mountain,

In the spring by their road.

Then on to Olympus,

Their endless abode.
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—Whose praise do they mention,

Of what is it told?—

What will be for ever.

What was from of old.

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First hymn they the Father

Of all things: and then,

The rest of Immortals,

The action of men.

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The Day in his hotness,

The strife with the palm;

The Night in her silence,

The Stars in their calm.

 

Biographical information on Matthew Arnold

 

  1. Empedocles on Etna, a dramatic poem by Matthew Arnold, was published anonymously in 1852.  The poem is based on legends around the death of Empedocles (c. 490–430 BCE), a Greek philosopher and statesman. Portrayed as a man with no joy, who feels useless intellectually and politically, he plans to kill himself by leaping into the Mt. Etna volcano.  Two friends Pausanias, a physician, and Callicles, a young Harp-player, try to live his depression, to no avail. The Song of Callicles  begins just after Empedocles has thrown himself into the crater. – “Empedocles on Etna.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. March 28, 2011. Accessed June 29, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Empedocles-on-Etna
  2. Elliott & Fry. Matthew Arnold. c. 1883. National Portait Gallery, London. In National Portrai Gallery. https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw115288/Matthew-Arnold.

 

June 30, 2019