Excerpt from 'Pompeii'
Description:
The poem’s narrator gazes upon the ruins of Pompeii and imagines what took place on the date of the eruption. The narrator describes a crowded street that is instantly engulfed in a cloud of ash while Mount Vesuvius fumes in smoke and flames. After imagining this, the narrator returns to his present moment and begins to tread through the ruins.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Primary Works:
Pompeii
Accession Number:
Y D636 P
Height (in centimeters):
16
Width (in centimeters):
8
Printing Context
"Pompeii" was created as an academic exercise at Harvard University. In 1848, this poem, along with other of William Dix’s poems, was compiled in the book Pompeii and other Poems. This book of poems can now be found at Memorial Library at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.Associated Events
Once a thriving Roman city, Pompeii was destroyed by a massive eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Civilians were buried under sixty feet of scorching ash within minutes of the eruption, which lasted two days. Today the ruins are unearthed and attract millions of tourists annually. Molds of the dead and archeological ruins remain as a reminder of Pompeii's destruction (R. Brilliant, Pompeii AD 79 292-296).Associated Places
Harvard UniversitySubject
In this poem, the narrator invisions a spectacle—of fire, smoke, ash, and death—that portrays the eruption of Vesuvius as awe-inspiring in its immense and mysterious powers of destruction. Consequently, the image invoked by the poem represents the early Romantic fascination with the sublime.Significance
Inspired by early Romantic thought, the work of William Dix embodies early Romantic perceptions of volcanoes. The general Romantic audience only appreciated the death and destruction brought about by Mt. Vesuvius' eruption in 79 AD—not the scientific facts behind the disaster. Worth mentioning is Johann J. Winckemann’s excavations of ancient volcanic ruins in the mid 1700s, as these archeological studies shone some light on volcanism. But Winckemann’s works, like Dix’s poem and the writings of other early Romantic scientists, lacked the precise volcanic knowledge found in scientific publications. Dix was influenced by subjective works instead of objective science. Volcanism as we know it today (grounded in scientific data) was not a focus of early Romantic culture, in which an aesthetics founded on scientific details was unavailable or unappreciated. So, to depict the violence that his audience would appreciate, Dix evokes the sublime: his poem describes the visual spectacle of city-engulfing ash and a fuming volcano. Because the poem was inspired by early Romantic works, Pompeii represents how early Romantic culture appreciated and understood volcanoes as fear-inducing and sublime.Function
As a student at Harvard University, William Giles Dix studied English Literature (specifically poetry). During his studies, he wrote about Pompeii for a poetry exercise, influenced by the artistic works of Washington Allston and William Bryant. Though simply intended to complete an assignment, Dix's poem represents the early Romantic yearning for the sublime—to gaze upon something seemingly larger than life, to be awe-struck and afraid. Because aesthetics overshadowed scientific details during the early Romantic era, few, actual facts were known about volcanoes or the 79 AD eruption. Consequently, readers were captivated solely by the destructive and seemingly mysterious power of the volcano.Bibliography
Bethell, John. Harvard Observed: An Illustrated History of the University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1998.Long Title
Pompeii and other poems / by William Giles Dix.Featured in Exhibit:
From the Collection:
Image Date:
1848
