“It was a day of gloom, and strange suspense,
And feverish, and inexplicable dread,
In Herculaneum's walls. The heavy, thick,
And torrid atmosphere; the solid, vast,
And strong--edg'd clouds, that through the firmament
In various and opposing courses moved:
The wild scream of the solitary bird
That, at long intervals, flew terror-driven
On high:--the howling of the red-ey'd dog
As he gaz'd trembling on the angry heavens:
The hollow moans that swept along the air,
Though every wind was lock'd,-portended all
That nature with some dire event was big,
And labour'd in its birth.”

— Edwin Atherstone

The Last Days of Herculaneum (1821)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 8, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It was a day of gloom, and strange suspense, And feverish, and inexplicable dread, In Herculaneum's walls. The heavy,…" by Edwin Atherstone?

Edwin Atherstone photo

Edwin Atherstone 3

British writer 1788–1872

Related quotes

“And still the arrows flew so thick and fast,
That, as by clouds, the heavens were overcast.”

Francesco Berni (1497–1535) Italian poet

Tal l'aspro saettare, e tanto dura,
Che per l'ombra de' dardi il ciel s'oscura.
LXIV, 61
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato

“Further, at intervals they lay single stones which run through the entire thickness of the wall.”

Vitruvius book De architectura

Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book II, Chapter VIII, Sec. 7
Context: Our workmen, in their hurry to finish, devote themselves only to the facings of the walls, setting them upright but filling the space between with a lot of broken stones and mortar thrown in anyhow. This makes three different sections in the same structure; two consisting of facing and one of filling between them. The Greeks, however, do not build so; but laying their stones level and building every other stone lengthwise into the thickness, they do not fill the space between, but construct the thickness of their walls in one solid and unbroken mass from the facings to the interior. Further, at intervals they lay single stones which run through the entire thickness of the wall. These stones... by their bonding powers... add very greatly to the solidity of the walls.

“From high black walls, gleaming vaguely with rain,
Each yellow light looked down like a golden eye.
They trembled from coign to coign, and tower to tower,
Along high terraces quicker than dream they flew.
And some of them steadily glowed, and some soon vanished,
And some strange shadows threw.”

Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) American novelist and poet

The House of Dust (1916 - 1917)

“Can it be the sun descending o'er the level plain of water or the Red Swan floating, flying wounded by the Magic Arrow? Staining all the waves with crimson, with the crimson of its life-blood, filling all the air with splendor, filling all the air with plumage? […] O'er it the Star of Evening melts and trembles through the purple, hangs suspensed in twilight, walks in silence through the heavens…”

Mike Oldfield (1953) English musician, multi-instrumentalist

Song lyrics, Incantations (1978)

“High high in the hills, high in a pine tree bed.
She's tracing the wind with that old hand, counting the clouds with that old chant,
Three geese in a flock
one flew east
one flew west
one flew over the cuckoo's nest”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“For a long time that's all I could do, howl and scream and cry like the wild animal of the night that I'd become.”

Darren Shan book The Vampire's Assistant

Source: The Vampire's Assistant

“The dogs did bark, the children screamed,
Up flew the windows all;
And every soul cried out, "Well done!"
As loud as he could bawl.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

St. 28.
The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1785)

“Climb the steep Cold Mountain way
Roads to Cold Mountain are many and never ending
The valleys are long and deep, the peaks piled high
The streams are wide, the grass is thick
The moss is slippery though there is no rain
The pines sigh though there is no wind
Who can escape the snares of the world
And come to sit with me among the white clouds?”

Han-shan Chinese monk and poet

Cold Mountain Transcendental Poetry

“But lo! the girl, like a frightened dove, that caught in the vast shadow of a hawk falls trembling on some man, no matter who he be, so doth she fling herself into his arms driven by strong fear.”
Ecce autem pavidae virgo de more columbae quae super ingenti circumdata praepetis umbra in quemcumque tremens hominem cadit, haud secus illa acta timore gravi mediam se misit.

Gaius Valerius Flaccus book Argonautica

Source: Argonautica, Book VIII, Lines 32–35

“And every bird I ever knew
Back and forth in the summer flew;
And breezes wafted over me
The scent of every flower and tree:
Till I forgot the pain and gloom
And silence of my darkened room”

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885) Novelist, poet, writer, activist

from Shadow of Birds

Related topics