The Image in Lava (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Felicia Dorothea Browne
- First Published: 1828
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Mothers, Parents and children, Love or romance, Death or dying, Italy or Italians, Volcanoes
The Poem
“The Image in Lava” is a short poem of eleven four-line stanzas. The title refers to an impression, in volcanic ash and lava, of a woman clasping a baby to her breast that was discovered during the excavation of the ruins of the ancient city of Herculaneum (buried with Pompeii by an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 c.e.). In the first stanza, the speaker of the poem addresses the image directly, asking “What ages have gone by” since the moment when the mother and infant were killed (“the mournful seal was set” in “love and agony”). The next...
[The entire page is 1542 words long]
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