The gallant Youth, who may have gained,
    Or seeks, a “winsome Marrow,”
Was but an Infant in the lap
    When first I looked on Yarrow;
Once more, by Newark’s Castle-gate
    Long left without a warder,
I stood, looked, listened, and with Thee,
    Great Minstrel of the Border!

Grave thoughts ruled wide on that sweet day,
    Their dignity installing
In gentle bosoms, while sere leaves
    Were on the bough, or falling;
But breezes played, and sunshine gleamed—
    The forest to embolden;
Reddened the fiery hues, and shot
    Transparence through the golden.

For busy thoughts the Stream flowed on
    In foamy agitation;
And slept in many a crystal pool
    For quiet contemplation:
No public and no private care
    The freeborn mind enthralling,
We made a day of happy hours,
    Our happy days recalling.

Brisk Youth appeared, the Morn of youth,
    With freaks of graceful folly,—
Life’s temperate Noon, her sober Eve,
    Her Night not melancholy;
Past, present, future, all appeared
    In harmony united,
Like guests that meet, and some from far,
    By cordial love invited.

And if, as Yarrow, through the woods
    And down the meadow ranging,
Did meet us with unaltered face,
    Though we were changed and changing;
If, then, some natural shadows spread
    Our inward prospect over,
The soul’s deep valley was not slow
    Its brightness to recover.

Eternal blessings on the Muse,
    And her divine employment!
The blameless Muse, who trains her Sons
    For hope and calm enjoyment;
Albeit sickness, lingering yet,
    Has o’er their pillow brooded;
And Care waylays their steps—a Sprite
    Not easily eluded.

For thee, O Scott! compelled to change
    Green Eildon—hill and Cheviot
For warm Vesuvio’s vine-clad slopes;
    And leave thy Tweed and Tiviot
For mild Sorrento’s breezy waves;
    May classic Fancy, linking
With native Fancy her fresh aid,
    Preserve thy heart from sinking!

Oh! while they minister to thee,
    Each vying with the other,
May Health return to mellow Age
    With Strength, her venturous brother;
And Tiber, and each brook and rill
    Renowned in song and story,
With unimagined beauty shine,
    Nor lose one ray of glory!

For Thou, upon a hundred streams,
    By tales of love and sorrow,
Of faithful love, undaunted truth
    Hast shed the power of Yarrow;
And streams unknown, hills yet unseen,
    Wherever they invite Thee,
At parent Nature’s grateful call,
    With gladness must requite Thee.

A gracious welcome shall be thine,
    Such looks of love and honour
As thy own Yarrow gave to me
    When first I gazed upon her;
Beheld what I had feared to see,
    Unwilling to surrender
Dreams treasured up from early days,
    The holy and the tender.

And what, for this frail world, were all
    That mortals do or suffer,
Did no responsive harp, no pen,
    Memorial tribute offer?
Yea, what were mighty Nature’s self?
    Her features, could they win us,
Unhelped by the poetic voice
    That hourly speaks within us?

Nor deem that localized Romance
    Plays false with our affections;
Unsanctifies our tears-made sport
    For fanciful dejections:
Ah, no! the visions of the past
    Sustain the heart in feeling
Life as she is-our changeful Life,
    With friends and kindred dealing.

Bear witness, Ye, whose thoughts that day
    In Yarrow’s groves were centred;
Who through the silent portal arch
    Of mouldering Newark entered;
And clomb the winding stair that once
    Too timidly was mounted
By the “last Minstrel,”(not the last!)
    Ere he his Tale recounted.

Flow on for ever, Yarrow Stream!
    Fulfil thy pensive duty,
Well pleased that future Bards should chant
    For simple hearts thy beauty;
To dream-light dear while yet unseen,
    Dear to the common sunshine,
And dearer still, as now I feel,
    To memory’s shadowy moonshine!

Vesuvius has a long historical
and literary tradition. It was considered
a deity of the genius type at the time
of the explosion in the year 79:
it appears under the registered name
of Vesuvius as a snake in the ornamental
frescoes of many residential sanctuaries
or dwellings that survive Pompeii.
An inscription from Capua to IOVI
VESVVIO shows that it was worshiped
as the power of Zeus. That is, Zeus Vesuvius.
Mount Vesuvius / vɪsuːviəs /; Italian:
Mount Vesuvio [monte vezuːvjo];
Napolitano: Vesuvius? Latin: Mons Vesuvius
[mõːs wɛsʊwɪ.ʊs]; Also Vesevus or Vesaevus
in some Roman sources is a somma-
stratovolcano located in the Bay of Naples
in Campania, about 9 kilometers
east of Naples and a short distance
from the coast. It is one of the many
volcanoes that make up the campanian
volcano. Vesuvius consists of a large cone
partially surrounded by the steep crest
of a boiler peak caused by the collapse
of a previous structure and initially
much higher. Mount Vesuvius is known
for its eruption in 79 AD. which led
to the burial and destruction
of the Roman cities of Pompeii,
Herculaneum, Orlando and Stabia,
as well as many other settlements.
The explosion threw a cloud of stones,
ash and volcanic gases at a height of 33 miles
(21 km), throwing molten rock and pulverized
pumice at a speed of 6 x 105 cubic meters
of 7.8 x 105 hm per second, finally
releasing one hundred thousand times
the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima-
Nagasaki bombing. More than 1,000 people
died in the explosion, but the exact numbers
are unknown. The only witness to the event,
who survived, are two letters from Pliny
the youngest to the historic Tacitus.
Vesuvius has closed many times
since then and is the only volcano
on the European continent that erupted
in the last hundred years. Today,
it is considered one of the most
dangerous volcanoes in the world due
to the population of 3,000,000 inhabitants
living nearby, which makes it the most
densely populated volcanic region
in the world and its tendency to violent
explosions of the Plinian type. . . The Romans
considered that Vesuvius was dedicated
to Hercules. The historian Diodorus Siculus
refers to the tradition that Hercules,
in carrying out his work, passed
from the country of nearby Cumae
on his way to Sicily and found there
a place called "Plain of Flegaria",
Field of Flegrasien, "Plain of Fire",
from a hill that initially drowned fire. . .
now it's called Vesuvius. "They were inhabited by thieves,"
the children of the Earth, "who were giants,
who with the help of the gods pacified
the region and continued the events
behind the tradition,    if there are any,
remaining known as in the name of the city
Herculaneum.  An inscription by the poet
Martial in AD 88 suggests that both Aphrodite
as the protector of Pompeii and Hercules
were worshiped in the area that was destroyed by its eruption.