On Peace Concluded in 1736.
Ætna within its cavern dire,
Thunder conceals and liquid fire;
On earth the fiery torrent pours,
And its inhabitants devours,
Your steps, afflicted Dryads, turn
From dreary plains which always burn;
Those caverns where hell seems to breathe
In fire and sulphur from beneath;
Those gulfs which to Tartarus bend,
Their furious floods incessant send.
More fierce and terrible the Po
Makes its fierce stream its banks o'erflow;
Pours through the plain its furious waves,
Foams, and with dreadful uproar raves:
It spreads destruction through the plain,
Fright, terror, death, compose its train;
And through Ferrara's fire conveys
The spoils of nations to the seas.
This war where elements contend,
Which heaven's expanse with fury rend;
These shocks from which all nature quakes,
With which earth's solid basis shakes:
Scourges of heaven which oft appear
To hang o'er this sad hemisphere;
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