News of the excavations spread quickly throughout Europe and sparked the public’s fascination with ancient Greek and Roman culture. Numerous poets and writers drafted imagined stories about life in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The narratives they created often were characterized by romantic descriptions of Pompeii in the days before the eruption or by melancholy reflections on what remained. English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792– 1822) provides a quixotic remembrance of a visit to the ancient sites in his Ode to Naples, which begins: I stood within the City disinterred; And heard of the autumnal leaves like light footfalls Of spirits passing through the streets; and heard The Mountain’s slumberous voice at intervals Thrill through those roofless.
