Classic Poem

How awfully grand to the gazer's sight,
The lurid flames arose by night,
Flapping their heads in etherial space,
And folding the clouds in a warm embrace;
While heaven reflected the brilliant blaze,
That pierced through the gloom of the dreamy haze,
And the vapours were wakened from night's repose,
As the vivid flash of destruction arose.

Red conflagration swept along,
And the furious flames more wild and strong,
Reeled roof by roof, from its local place,
To the humbling rest of the lowly base.
And the lattices melted one by one,
As icicles thawed by the torrid sun,
And embers rose in ether higher,
And dropt in an endless shower of fire!

High stood the naked walls, so grand!
As an object raised by a fairy wand;
Illumed by the ruddy gleam below,
And scorched by the breath of its awful glow.
But, hark! what thundering peals resound,
The walls are hurling to the ground,
And now those beauteous buildings lie,
A shapeless heap before the eye.