Virgil

“ Must never, never more our Hands be joyn’d?
Are you, like Heav’n, grown cruel and unkind?
Why must those borrow’d Shapes delude your Son?
And why, ah! why those Accents not your own?545
He said; then sought the Town; but Venus shrowds
And wraps their Persons in a Veil of Clouds;
That none may interpose, with fond Delay,
Nor see, nor touch, nor ask them of their Way.
Thro’ Air sublime the Queen of Love retreats550
To Paphos’ stately Tow’rs, and blissful Seats:
Where to her Name an hundred Altars rise,
And Gums, and flow’ry Wreaths, perfume the Skies. ”

“ Ador’d by Rome; a God among the Gods.
From that blest Hour, all Violence shall cease,
The Age grow mild, and soften into Peace.
With righteous Remus shall Quirinus reign, 390
Old Faith, and Vesta, shall return again;
With solid Hinges shall old Janus bar,
And close with Bolts, the horrid Gates of War. ”

“ By Grecian Foes expell’d, from Troy we came,500
From ancient Troy (if e’er you heard the Name)
Thro’ various Seas; when lo! a Tempest roars,
And raging drives us on the Lybian Shores.
The good Æneas am I call’d; my Fame,
And brave Exploits, have reach’d the starry Frame:505
From Grecian Flames, I bear my rescu’d Gods,
Safe in my Vessels, o’er the stormy Floods. ”

“ Her just Suspicions of the treach’rous Race,
Break, each revolving Night, her golden Rest:
And thus the suppliant Queen the God addrest.
Oh Son! my Strength, my Pow’r! who fire above
Immortal Breasts, nor dread the Bolts of Jove.895
To thee I fly, thy Succour to implore;
Court thy Protection, and thy Pow’r adore.
How haughty Juno’s restless Rage has tost
Your Brother round the Seas, and ev’ry Coast,
Is but to mention what too well you know,900
Who sigh’d my Sighs, and wept a Mother’s Woe. ”

“ Jove's Sister-Wife, and Empress of the Gods,65
With this one Nation must a War maintain
For Years on Years; and wage that War in vain.
And now what Suppliants will invoke my Name,
Adore my Pow'r, or bid my Altars frame?
Thus fir'd with Rage and Vengeance, down she flies70
To dark Æolia, from the distant Skies,
Impregnated with Storms; whose Tyrant binds
The blust'ring Tempests, and reluctant Winds.
Their Rage Imperial Æolus restrains
With rocky Dungeons, and with Heaps of Chains.75
The bellowing Brethren, in the Mountain pent,
Roar round the Cave, and struggle for a Vent. ”

“ Who drove his Coursers from the Scene of Blood,
E’er the fierce Steeds had tasted Trojan Food,635
Or drank divine Scamander’s fatal Flood.
There Troilus flies disarm’d, unhappy Boy!
From stern Achilles, round the Fields of Troy;
Unequal he! to such an Arm in War!
Supine, and trailing, from his empty Car,640
Still, tho’ in Death, he grasps the flowing Reins,
His startled Coursers whirl him o’er the Plains,
The Spear, inverted, streaks the Dust around,
His snowy Neck and Tresses sweep the Ground. ”

“ Himself a God; and mount the starry Skies.
To sooth your Care, these Secrets I relate
From the dark Volumes of eternal Fate:350
The Chief fair Italy shall reach, and there
With mighty Nations wage a dreadful War,
New Cities raise, the savage Natives awe,
And to the conquer’d Kingdoms give the Law.
The fierce Rutulians, vanquish’d by his Sword,355
Three Years shall Latium own him sovereign Lord. ”

“ Opprest by Waves below, by Thunders from the Skies.
Full well he knew his Sister’s endless Hate,
Her Wiles and Arts to sink the Trojan State.
To Eurus, and the Western Blast, he cry’d,180
Does your high Birth inspire this boundless Pride,
Audacious Winds! without a Pow’r from me,
To raise, at Will, such Mountains on the Sea?
Thus to confound Heav’n, Earth, the Air, and Main?
Whom I–but first I’ll calm the Waves again.185
But if you tempt my Rage a second Time,
Know, that some heavier Vengeance waits the Crime. ”

“ A certain Period, by relenting Heav’n.
Think, how you saw the dire Cyclopean Shore, 270
Heard Scylla’s Rocks, and all her Monsters, roar.
Dismiss your Fears; on these Misfortunes past
Your Minds with Pleasure may reflect at last.
Thro’ such varieties of Woes, we tend
To promis’d Latium, where our Toils shall end: 275
Where the kind Fates shall peaceful Seats ordain,
And Troy, in all her Glories, rise again.
With manly Patience bear your present State,
And with firm Courage wait a better Fate. ”

“ Which sooth’d my Grief, when Ilion felt her Doom,320
And Troy I balanced with the Fates of Rome.
But see! their Fortune still pursues her Blow;
When wilt thou fix a Period to their Woe?
In safety, bold Antenor broke his Way
Thro’ Hosts of Foes, and pierc’d th’ Illyrian Bay,325
Where, thro’ nine ample Mouths, Timavus pours,
Wide as a Sea, and deluges the Shores;
The Flood rebellows, and the Mountain roars.
Yet, with his Colonies, secure he came,
Rais’d Padua’s Walls, and gave the Realms a Name. 330
Then fix’d his Trojan Arms; his Labours cease ”

“ Why Cynthia changes; why the Sun retires,
Shorn of his radiant Beams, and genial Fires;
From what Originals, and Causes, came1005
Mankind and Beasts, the Rain, and rising Flame;
Arcturus, dreadful with his stormy Star;
The wat’ry Hyads, and the Northern Car;
Why Suns in Summer the slow Night detain,
And rush so swift in Winter to the Main.1010
With Shouts the Tyrians praise the Song divine,
And in the loud Applause the Trojans joyn.
The Queen, in various Talk, prolongs the Hours,
Drinks deep of Love, and ev’ry Word devours ”

“ Ev'n then the Seat of universal Sway.25
But of a Race she heard, that should destroy
The Tyrian Tow'rs, a Race deriv'd from Troy,
Who proud in Arms, triumphant by their Swords,
Should rise in Time, the World's victorious Lords ”

“ At the rich Labours of the Artist’s Hands;
Amid the story’d Walls, he saw appear,
Drawn to the Life, the tedious Trojan War;
The War, that Fame had blaz’d the World around,610
And ev’ry Battle fought on Phrygian Ground.
There Priam stood, and Agamemnon here,
And Peleus’ Son, to both alike severe.
Struck with the View, oh! Friend, the Hero cries,
(Tears, as he spoke, came starting from his Eyes) 615
Lo! the wide World our Miseries employ ”

“ Throws up the Reins, and skims the wat’ry Way.
The Trojans, weary’d with the Storm, explore
The nearest Land, and reach the Lybian Shore.215
Far in a Deep Recess, her jutting Sides
An Isle projects, to break the rolling Tides,
And forms a Port, where, curling from the Sea,
The Waves ssteal back, and wind into a Bay.
On either Side, sublime in Air, arise220
Two tow’ring Rocks, whose Summits brave the Skies;
Low at their Feet the sleeping Ocean lies. ”

“ A chosen Troop before the Gate attends,580
Heaves off the Burdens, and relieves their Friends;
Warm at the fragrant Work, in Bands, they drive
The Drone, a lazy Robber, from the Hive.
The Prince surveys the lofty Tow’rs, and cries,
Blest, blest are you, whose Walls already rise:585
Then, strange to tell, he mingled with the Crowds,
And past, unseen, involv’d in mantling Clouds.
Amid the Town, a stately Grove display’d
A cooling Shelter, and delightful Shade.
Here, tost by Winds and Waves, the Tyrians found590
A Courser’s Head, within the sacred Ground ”

“ And hurl'd huge Heaps of Mountains on their Head:85
And gave a King commission'd to restrain
And curb the Tempest, or to loose the Rein.
Whom thus the Queen addrest. Since mighty Jove,
The King of Men, and Sire of Gods above,
Gives thee, great Æolus, the Pow'r to raise90
Storms at thy sovereign Will, or smooth the Seas;
A Race, I long have labour'd to destroy,
Waft to Hesperia the Remains of Troy.
Ev'n now their Navy cuts the Thuscan Floods,
Charg'd with their Exiles, and their vanquish'd Gods.95
Wing all thy furious Winds ”

“ Then bares his Breast, and points to ev’ry Wound:
Warns her to fly the Land, without Delay;
And, to support her thro’ the tedious Way,
Shows where, in massy Piles, his bury’d Treasures lay.
Rous’d, and alarm’d, the Wife her Flight intends,480
Obeys the Summons, and convenes her Friends:
They meet, they joyn, and in her Cause engage
All, who detest, or dread, the Tyrant’s Rage.
Some Ships, already rigg’d, they seiz’d, and stow’d
Their Sides with Gold; then launch’d into the Flood.485
They sail; the bold Exploit a Woman guides ”

“ The inner Rooms in regal Pomp display’d,
The splendid Feasts in ample Halls are made;
Where, labour’d o’er with Art, rich Carpets lye,
That glow refulgent with the purple Dye.860
The Boards are pil’d with Plate of curious Mould ”

“ And yon’ proud Cittadel invade the Skies.
The wand’ring Exiles bought a Space of Ground490
Which one Bull-hide inclos’d and compast round;
Hence Byrsa nam’d: But now, ye Strangers, say,
Who? whence you are? and whither lies your Way?
Deep, from his Soul, he draws a Length of Sighs,
And, with a mournful Accent, thus replies.495
Shou’d I, O Goddess, from their Source, relate,
Or you attend, the Annals of our Fate ”