Tiberius took with him to Capri a number of learned Greek professors, — Capri

"There is an isle, kissed by a smiling sea, Where all sweet confluents meet: a thing of heaven, A spent aërolite, that well may be The missing sister of the starry Seven. Celestial beauty nestles at its knee, And in its lap is naught of earthly leaven. ’Tis girt and crowned with loveliness; its year, Eternal summer; winter comes not near.’Tis small, as things of beauty ofttimes are, And in a morning round it you may row, Nor need a tedious haste your bark debar From gliding inwards where the ripples flow Into strange grots whose roofs are azure spar, Whose pavements liquid silver. Mild winds blow Around your prow, and at your keel the foam, Leaping and laughing, freshly wafts you home.They call the island Capri,—with a name Dulling an airy dream, just as the soul Is clogged with body palpable,—and Fame Hath long while winged the word from pole to pole. Its human story is a tale of shame, Of all unnatural lusts a gory scroll, Record of what, when pomp and power agree, Man once hath been, and man again may be. * * * * * Terrace and slope from shore to summit show Of all rich climes the glad-surrendered spoil. Here the bright olive’s phantom branches glow, There the plump fig sucks sweetness from the soil. Mid odorous flowers that through the Zodiac blow, Returning tenfold to man’s leisured toil, Hesperia’s fruit hangs golden. High in air, The vine runs riot, spurning human care.And flowers of every hue and breath abound, Charming the sense; the burning cactus glows, Like daisies elsewhere dappling all the ground, And in each cleft the berried myrtle blows. The playful lizard glides and darts around, The elfin fireflies flicker o’er the rows Of ripened grain. Alien to pain and wrong, Men fill the days with dance, the nights with song."

"Verbosa ac grandis epistola venit a Capreis."

"What the mountainous Isle Seen in the South? ’Tis where a Monster dwelt, Hurling his victims from the topmost cliff; Then and then only merciful, so slow, So subtle, were the tortures they endured. Fearing and feared he lived, cursing and cursed; And still the dungeons in the rock breathe out Darkness, distemper. Strange, that one so vile Should from his den strike terror thro the world; Should, where withdrawn in his decrepitude, Say to the noblest, be they where they might, Go from the earth! and from the earth they went: Yet such things were—and will be, when mankind, Losing all virtue, lose all energy; And for the loss incur the penalty, Trodden down and trampled."

"Beneath the vine-clad slopes of Capri’s Isle, Which run down to the margin of that sea Whose waters kiss the sweet Parthenope, There is a grot whose rugged front the while Frowns only dark where all is seen to smile. But enter, and behold! surpassing fair The magic sight that meets your vision there,— Not heaven! with all its broad expanse of blue, Gleams colored with a sheen so rich, so rare, So changing in its clear, translucent hue; Glassed in the lustrous wave, the walls and roof Shine as does silver scattered o’er the woof Of some rich robe, or bright as stars whose light Inlays the azure concave of the night.You cannot find throughout this world, I ween, Waters so fair as those within this cave, Color like that which flashes from the wave, Or which is steeped in such cerulean sheen As here gleams forth within this grotto’s screen. And when the oar the boatman gently takes And dips it in the flood, a fiery glow, Ruddy as phosphor, stirs in depths below; Each ripple into burning splendor breaks, As though some hidden fires beneath did lie Waiting a touch to kindle into flame, And shine in radiance on the dazzled eye, As sparkling up from wells of light they came, To make this grot a glory far and nigh."