Vesuvius

Mount Vesuvius is an active volcano five miles east of Naples, Italy. This volcano is considered one of the most dangerous in the world because of its frequent eruptions. Three million people live near it, making Vesuvius the world's most heavily populuated volcanic region. 
Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in 79 AD, an eruption that buried the nearby towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killed roughly 16,000 people. The force of this eruption was equal to 100,000 times the energy released by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Pliny the Younger recorded the only existing eyewitness account of this event. 
=="Esthétique du Mal" ==
Mount Vesuvius appears in Stevens' poem "Esthetique du Mal," set in Naples. The main character in the poem spends his time writing letters and meditating about the nature of the sublime, with Vesuvius groaning forebodingly in the background:
 He was at Naples writing letters home 
 
 And, between his letters, reading paragraphs 
 
 On the sublime. Vesuvius had groaned 
 
 For a month. (ll. 1-4a)
Vesuvius's presence is a reminder of human pain, ironic in light of the man's quest for the sublime. Perhaps, as the poem later suggests, pain and the sublime are one. Also later in the poem, the speaker seems to be juxtaposing this modern letter-writer with the letter-writers of antiquity, possibly Pliny the Younger who authored the account of erupting Vesuvius in 79 AD:
 It was almost time for lunch. Pain is human.
 
 There were roses in the cool cafe. His book 
 
 Made sure of the most correct catastrophe. 
 
 Except for us, Vesuvius might consume 
 
 In solid fire the utmost earth and know 
 
 No pain (ll. 13-18a)
==References ==
Wallace Stevens, Collected Poetry and Prose. Library of America, 1997. Page 277.