Portus ab accessu ventorum immotus et ingens / ipse; sed horrificis juxta tonat Aetna ruinis, / interdumque atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem, / turbine fumantem piceo et candente favilla, / attollitque globos flammarum et sidera lambit, / interdum scopulos avulsaque viscera montis / erigit eructans, liquefactaque saxa sub auras / cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exaestuat imo.
It was a spacious harbour, sheltered deep / from access of the winds, but looming vast / with awful ravage, AEtna's neighbouring steep / thundered aloud, and, dark with clouds, upcast / smoke and red cinders in a whirlwind's blast. / Live balls of flame, with showers of sparks, upflew / and licked the stars, and in combustion massed, / torn rocks, her ragged entrails, molten new, / the rumbling mount belched forth from out the boiling stew.