'Et, fessum quoties mutet latus, intremere omnem
Murmure Trinacriam.'

Thirdly, the sheet of flame--

'Attolitque globos flarmmarum, et sidera lambit.'

Fourthly, the smoke--

'Et coelum subtexere fumo.'

Fifthly, the fire shower--

'Scopulos avulsaque viscera montis
Erigit erucatans, liquefactaque saxa sub auras
Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exae tuat imo.'

Sixthly the column of ash--

'Atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem
Turbine fumantem piceo et candente favilla.'

And this is within the limits of twelve lines. Modern poetry has its own
merits, but the conveyance of information is not, generally speaking,
one of them. What would Virgil have thought of authors publishing poems
with explanatory notes (to illustrate is a different matter), as if they
were so many books of conundrums? Indeed this vice is of very
late years."

The entire description, of which this is but an extract, is very