Classic Poem

FIRST BOOK

Arms, and the Man I sing, the first who bore
His course to Latium from the Trojan shore,
A Fugitive of Fate: — long time was He
By Powers celestial tossed on land and sea,
Through wrathful Juno's far-famed enmity;
Much, too, from war endured; till new abodes
He planted, and in Latium fixed his Gods;
Whence flowed the Latin People; whence have come
The Alban Sires, and Walls of lofty Rome.

Say, Muse, what Powers were wronged, what grievance drove
To such extremity the Spouse of Jove,
Labouring to wrap in perils, to astound;
With woes, a Man for piety renowned!
In heavenly breasts is such resentment found?

Right opposite the Italian Coast there stood
An ancient City, far from Tiber's flood,
Carthage its name; a Colony of Tyre,
Rich, strong, and bent on war with fierce desire.
No region, not even Samos, was so graced
By Juno's favour; here her Arms were placed,
Here lodged her Chariot; and unbounded scope,
Even then, the Goddess gave to partial hope;
Her aim (if Fate such triumph will allow)
That to this Nation all the world shall bow.
But Fame had told her that a Race, from Troy
Derived, the Tyrian ramparts would destroy;
That from this stock a People, proud in war,
And trained to spread dominion wide and far,
Should come, and through her favourite Lybian State
Spread utter ruin; — such the doom of Fate.
In fear of this, while busy thought recalls
The war she raised against the Trojan Walls
For her loved Argos (and, with these combined,
Worked other causes rankling in her mind,
The judgement given by Paris, and the slight
Her beauty had received on Ida's height,
The undying hatred which the Race had bred,
And honours given to ravished Ganymed),
Saturnian Juno far from Latium chased
The Trojans, tossed upon the watery waste;
Unhappy relics of the Grecian spear
And of the dire Achilles! Many a year
They roamed ere Fate's decision was fulfilled,
Such arduous toil it was the Roman State to build.

Sicilian headlands scarcely out of sight,
They spread the canvas with a fresh delight;
Then Juno, brooding o'er the eternal wound,
Thus inly; — " Must I vanquished quit the ground
Of my attempt? Or impotently toil
To bar the Trojans from the Italian soil?
For the Fates thwart me; — yet could Pallas raise
'Mid Argive vessels a destructive blaze,
And in the Deep plunge all, for fault of one,
The desperate frenzy of Oileus' Son;
She from the clouds the bolt of Jove might cast,
And ships and sea deliver to the blast!
Him, flames ejecting from a bosom fraught
With sulphurous fire, she in a whirlwind caught,
And on a sharp rock fixed; — but I who move
Heaven's Queen, the Sister and the Wife of Jove,
Wage with one Race the war I waged of yore!
Who then, henceforth, will Juno's name adore?
Her altars grace with gifts, her aid implore?"

These things revolved in fiery discontent,
Her course the Goddess to Aeolia bent,
Country of lowering clouds, where South-winds rave;
There Aeolus, within a spacious cave
With sovereign power controuls the struggling Winds,
And the sonorous Storms in durance binds.
Loud, loud the mountain murmurs as they wreak
Their scorn upon the barriers. On a peak
High-seated, Aeolus his sceptre sways,
Soothes their fierce temper, and their wrath allays.
This did he not, — sea, earth, and heaven's vast deep
Would follow them, entangled in the sweep;
But in black caves the Sire Omnipotent
The winds sequestered, fearing such event;
Heaped over them vast mountains, and assigned
A Monarch, that should rule the blustering kind;
By stedfast laws their violence restrain,
And give, on due command, a loosened rein.
As she approached, thus spake the suppliant Queen:
" Aeolus! (for the Sire of Gods and men
On thee confers the power to tranquillize
The troubled waves, or summon them to rise)
A Race, my Foes, bears o'er the troubled Sea
Troy and her conquered Gods to Italy.
Throw power into the winds; the ships submerge,
Or part, — and give their bodies to the surge.
Twice seven fair Nymphs await on my command,
All beautiful; — the fairest of the Band,
Deiopeia, such desert to crown,
Will I, by stedfast wedlock, make thine own;
In everlasting fellowship with thee
To dwell, and yield a beauteous progeny."

To this the God: " O Queen, declare thy will
And be it mine the mandate to fulfill.
To thee I owe my sceptre, and the place
Jove's favour hath assigned me; through thy grace
I at the banquets of the Gods recline;
And my whole empire is a gift of thine."

When Aeolus had ceased, his spear he bent
Full on the quarter where the winds were pent,
And smote the mountain. — Forth, where way was made,
Rush his wild Ministers; the land pervade,
And fasten on the Deep. There Eurus, there
Notus, and Africus unused to spare
His tempests, work with congregated power,
To upturn the abyss, and roll the unwieldy waves ashore.
Clamour of Men ensues, and crash of shrouds,
Heaven and the day by instantaneous clouds
Are ravished from the Trojans; on the floods
Black night descends, and, palpably, there broods.
The thundering Poles incessantly unsheath
Their fires, and all things threaten instant death.

Appalled, and with slack limbs Aeneas stands;
He groans, and heavenward lifting his clasped hands,
Exclaims: " Thrice happy they who chanced to fall
In front of lofty Ilium's sacred Wall,
Their parents witnessing their end; — Oh why,
Bravest of Greeks, Tydides, could not I
Pour out my willing spirit through a wound
From thy right hand received, on Trojan ground?
Where Hector lies, subjected to the spear
Of the invincible Achilles; where
The great Sarpedon sleeps; and o'er the plain
Soft Simois whirls helmet, and shield, and men,
Throngs of the Brave in fearless combat slain!"

While thus he spake, the Aquilonian gale
Smote from the front upon his driving Sail,
And heaved the thwarted billows to the sky,
Round the Ship labouring in extremity.
Help from her shattered oars in vain she craves;
Then veers the prow, exposing to the waves
Her side; and lo! a surge, to mountain height
Gathering, prepares to burst with its whole weight.
Those hang aloft, as if in air: to these
Earth is disclosed between the boiling seas
Whirled on by Notus, three encounter shocks
In the main sea, received from latent rocks;
Rocks stretched in dorsal ridge of rugged frame
On the Deep's surface; ALTARS is the name
By which the Italians mark them. Three the force
Of Eurus hurries from an open course
On straits and Shallows, dashes on the strand,
And girds the wreck about with heaps of sand.
Another, in which Lyeus and his Mate,
Faithful Orontes, share a common fate,
As his own eyes full plainly can discern,
By a huge wave is swept from prow to stern;
Headlong the Pilot falls; thrice whirled around,
The Ship is buried in the gulph profound.
Amid the boundless eddy a lost Few,
Drowning, or drowned, emerge to casual view;
On waves which planks, and arms, and Trojan wealth bestrew.
Over the strong-ribbed pinnace, in which sails
Ilioneus, the Hurricane prevails;
Now conquers Abas, then the Ships that hold
Valiant Achates, and Alethes old;
The joints all loosening in their sides, they drink
The hostile brine through many a greedy chink.

Meanwhile, what strife disturbed the roaring sea,
And for what outrages the storm was free,
Troubling the Ocean to its inmost caves,
Neptune perceived incensed; and o'er the waves
Forth-looking with a stedfast brow and eye
Raised from the Deep in placid majesty,
He saw the Trojan Galleys scattered wide,
The men they bore oppressed and terrified;
Waters and ruinous Heaven against their peace allied.
Nor from the Brother was concealed the heat
Of Juno's anger, and each dark deceit.
Eurus he called, and Zephyrus, — and the Pair,
Who at his bidding quit the fields of air,
He thus addressed; " Upon your Birth and Kind
Have ye presumed with confidence so blind
As, heedless of my Godhead, to perplex
The Land with uproar, and the Sea to vex;
Which by your act, O winds! thus fiercely heaves?
Whom I — but better calm the troubled waves.
Henceforth, atonement shall not prove so slight
For such a trespass; to your King take flight,
And say that not to Him , but unto Me ,
Fate hath assigned this watery sovereignty;
Mine is the Trident — his a rocky Hold,
Thy mansion, Eurus! — vaunting uncontrolled,
Let Aeolus there occupy his hall,
And in that prison-house the winds enthrall!"

He spake; and, quicker than the word, his will
Felt through the sea abates each tumid hill,
Quiets the deep, and silences the shores,
And to a cloudless heaven the sun restores.
Cymothoe shoves, with leaning Triton's aid,
The stranded Ships — or Neptune from their bed
With his own Trident lifts them; — then divides
The sluggish heaps of sand — and gently glides,
Skimming, on light smooth wheels, the level tides.
Thus oft, when a sedition hath ensued,
Arousing all the ignoble multitude,
Straight through the air do stones and torches fly,
With every missile frenzy can supply;
Then, if a venerable Man step forth,
Strong through acknowledged piety and worth,
Hushed at the sight into mute peace, all stand
Listening, with eyes and ears at his command;
Their minds to him are subject; and the rage
That burns within their breasts his lenient words assuage.
So fell the Sea's whole tumult, overawed
Then, when the Sire, casting his eyes abroad,
Turns under open Heaven his docile Steeds,
And with his flowing Chariot smoothly speeds.

The worn-out Trojans, seeking land where'er
The nearest coast invites, for Lybia steer.
There is a Bay whose deep retirement hides
The place where Nature's self a Port provides,
Framed by a friendly island's jutting sides,
Bulwark from which the billows of the Main
Recoil upon themselves, spending their force in vain.
Vast rocks are here; and, safe beneath the brows
Of two heaven-threatening Cliffs, the Floods repose.
Glancing aloft in bright theatric show
Woods wave, and gloomily impend below;
Right opposite this pomp of sylvan shade,
Wild crags and lowering rocks a cave have made;
Within, sweet waters gush; and all bestrown
Is the cool floor with seats of living stone;
Cell of the Nymphs, no chains, no anchors, here
Bind the tired vessels, floating without fear;
Led by Aeneas, in this shelter meet
Seven ships, the scanty relics of his Fleet;
The Crews, athirst with longings for the land,
Here disembark, and range the wished-for strand;
Or on the sunny shore their limbs recline,
Heavy with dropping ooze, and drenched with brine.
Achates, from a smitten flint, receives
The spark upon a bed of fostering leaves;
Dry fuel on the natural hearth he lays,
And speedily provokes a mounting blaze.
Then forth they bring, not utterly forlorn,
The needful implements, and injured corn,
Bruise it with stones, and by the aid of fire
Prepare the nutriment their frames require.

Meanwhile Aeneas mounts a cliff, to gain
An unobstructed prospect of the Main;
Happy if thence his wistful eyes may mark
The harassed Antheus, or some Phrygian Bark,
Or Capys, or the guardian Sign descry
Which, at the stern, Caicus bears on high.
No Sail appears in sight, nor toiling oar;
Only he spies three Stags upon the shore;
Behind, whole herds are following where these lead,
And in long order through the valleys feed.
He stops — and, with the bow, he seized the store
Of swift-winged arrows which Achates bore;
And first the Leaders to his shafts have bowed
Their heads elate with branching horns; the Crowd
Are stricken next; and all the affrighted Drove
Fly in confusion to the leafy grove.
Nor from the weapons doth his hand refrain,
Till Seven, a Stag for every Ship, are slain,
And with their bulky bodies press the plain.
Thence to the port he hies, divides the spoil;
And deals out wine, which on Trinacria's soil,
Acestes stored for his departing Guest;
Then with these words he soothes each sorrowing breast.

" O Friends, not unacquainted with your share
Of misery, ere doomed these ills to bear!
O ye, whom worse afflictions could not bend!
Jove also hath for these prepared an end.
The voices of dread Scylla ye have heard,
Her belt of rabid mouths your prows have neared;
Ye shunned with peril the Cyclopian den,
Cast off your fears, resume the hearts of men!
Hereafter, this our present lot may be
A cherished object for pleased memory.
Through strange mishaps, through hazards manifold
And various, we our course to Latium hold;
There, Fate a settled habitation shows; —
There, Trojan empire (this, too, Fate allows)
Shall be revived. Endure; with patience wait;
Yourselves reserving for a happier state!"

Aeneas thus, though sick with weight of care,
Strives, by apt words their spirits to repair;
The hope he does not feel his countenance feigns,
And deep within he smothers his own pains.
They seize the Quarry; for the feast prepare;
Part use their skill the carcase to lay bare,
Stripping from off the limbs the dappled hide;
And Part the palpitating flesh divide;
The portions some expose to naked fire,
Some steep in cauldrons where the flames aspire.
Not wanting utensils, they spread the board;
And soon their wasted vigour is restored;
While o'er green turf diffused, in genial mood
They quaff the mellow wine, nor spare the forest food.
All hunger thus appeased, they ask in thought
For friends, with long discourses, vainly sought:
Hope, fear, and doubt contend if yet they live,
Or have endured the last; nor can receive
The obsequies a duteous voice might give.
Apart, for Lycas mourns the pious Chief;
For Amycus is touched with silent grief;
For Gyas, for Cloanthes; and the Crew
That with Orontes perished in his view.

So finished their repast, while on the crown
Of Heaven stood Jupiter; whence looking down,
He traced the sea where winged vessels glide,
Saw Lands, and shores, the Nations scattered wide;
And, lastly, from that all-commanding Height,
He viewed the Lybian realms with stedfast sight.
To him, revolving mortal hopes and fears,
Venus (her shining eyes suffused with tears)
Thus, sorrowing, spake: " O Sire! who rul'st the way
Of Men and Gods with thy eternal sway,
And aw'st with thunder, what offence, unfit
For pardon, could my much-loved Son commit —
The Trojans what — thine anger to awake?
That, after such dire loss, they for the sake
Of Italy see all the world denied
To their tired hopes, and nowhere may abide!
For, that the Romans hence should draw their birth
As years roll round, even hence, and govern earth
With power supreme, from Teucer's Line restored
Such was (O Father, why this change?) thy word.
From this, when Troy had perished, for my grief
(Fates balancing with fates) I found relief;
Like fortune follows: — when shall thy decree
Close, mighty King, this long adversity?
— Antenor, from amid the Grecian hosts
Escaped, could thrid Illyria's sinuous coasts;
Pierce the Lyburnian realms; o'erclimb the Fountain
Of loud Timarus, whence the murmuring Mountain
A nine-mouthed channel to the torrent yields,
That rolls its headlong sea, a terror to the fields.
Yet to his Paduan seats he safely came;
A City built, whose People bear his name;
There hung his Trojan Arms, where now he knows
The consummation of entire repose.
But we , thy progeny, allowed to boast
Of future Heaven — betrayed, — our Navy lost —
Through wrath of One, are driven far from the Italian coast.
Is piety thus honoured? Doth thy grace
Thus in our hands the allotted sceptre place?"

On whom the Sire of Gods and human Kind
Half-smiling, turned the look that stills the wind
And clears the heavens; then, touching with light kiss
His Daughter's lip, he speaks:
" Thy griefs dismiss:
And, Cytherea, these forebodings spare:
No wavering fates deceive the objects of thy care,
Lavinian Walls full surely wilt thou see,
The promised City; and, upborne by thee,
Magnanimous Aeneas yet shall range
The starry heavens; nor doth my purpose change.
He (since thy soul is troubled I will raise
Things from their depths, and open Fate's dark ways)
Shall wage dread wars in Italy, abate
Fierce Nations, build a Town and rear a State;
Till three revolving summers have beheld
His Latian kingdom, the Rutulians quelled.
But young Ascanius (Ilus heretofore,
Name which he held till Ilium was no more,
Now called Iülus) while the months repeat
Their course, and thirty annual orbs complete,
Shall reign, and quit Lavinium to preside
O'er Alba-longa, sternly fortified.
Here, under Chiefs of this Hectorian Race,
Three hundred years shall empire hold her place,
Ere Ilia, royal Priestess, gives to earth
From the embrace of Mars, a double birth.
Then Romulus, the elder, proudly drest
In tawny wolf-skin, his memorial vest,
Mavortian Walls, his Father's Seat, shall frame,
And from himself, the People Romans name.
To these I give dominion that shall climb
Unchecked by space, uncircumscribed by time;
An empire without end. Even Juno, driven
To agitate with fear earth, sea and heaven,
With better mind shall for the past atone:
Prepared with me to cherish as her own
The Romans, lords o'er earth, the Nation of the Gown.
So 'tis decreed. As circling times roll on
Phthia shall fall, Mycenae shall be won;
Descendants of Assaracus shall reign
O'er Argos subject to the Victor's chain.
From a fair Stem shall Trojan Caesar rise;
Ocean may terminate his power; — the skies
Can be the only limit of his fame;
A Julius he, inheriting the name
From great Iülus. Fearless shalt thou greet
The Ruler, when to his celestial Seat
He shall ascend, spoil-laden from the East;
He, too, a God to be with vows addressed.
Then shall a rugged Age, full long defiled
With cruel wars, grow placable and mild;
Then hoary Faith, and Vesta, shall delight
To speak their laws, Quirinus shall unite
With his twin Brother to uphold the right.
Fast shall be closed the iron-bolted Gates
Upon whose dreadful issues Janus waits
Within, on high-piled Arms, and from behind
With countless links of brazen chains confined
Shall Fury sit, breathing unholy threats
From his ensanguined mouth that impotently frets."

This uttered, Maia's Son he sends from high
To embolden Tyrian hospitality;
Lest haply Dido, ignorant of fate,
Should chase the Wanderers from her rising State.
He through the azure region works the oars
Of his swift wings, and lights on Lybian Shores.
Prompt is he there his mission to fulfil;
The Tyrians soften, yielding to Jove's will; —
And, above all, their Queen receives a mind
Fearless of harm, and to the Trojans kind.

Aeneas, much revolving through the night,
Rose with the earliest break of friendly light;
Resolved to certify by instant quest
Who ruled the uncultured region — man or beast.
Forthwith he hides, beneath a rocky cove,
His Fleet, o'ershadowed by the pendent grove;
And, brandishing two javelins, quits the Bay,
Achates sole companion of his way.
While they were journeying thus, before him stood
His Mother, met within a shady wood.
The habit of a virgin did she wear;
Her aspect suitable, her gait, and air; —
Armed like a Spartan Virgin, or of mien
Such as in Thrace Harpalyce is seen,
Urging to weariness the fiery horse,
Outstripping Hebrus in his headlong course.
Light o'er her shoulders had she given the bow
To hang; her tresses on the wind to flow;
— A Huntress with bare knee; — a knot upbound
The folds of that loose vest, which else had swept the ground.
" Ho!" she exclaimed, their words preventing, " say
Have you not seen some Huntress here astray,
One of my Sisters, with a quiver graced;
Clothed by the spotted lynx, and o'er the waste
Pressing the foaming boar, with outcry chased?"

Thus Venus; — thus her Son forthwith replied,
" None of thy Sisters have we here espied,
None have we heard: — O Virgin! in pure grace
Teach me to name Thee; for no mortal face
Is thine, nor bears thy voice a human sound; —
A Goddess surely, worthy to be owned
By Phoebus as a Sister — or thy Line
Is haply of the Nymphs; O Power divine
Be thou propitious! and, whoe'er thou art,
Lighten our labour; tell us in what part
Of earth we roam, who these wild precincts trace,
Ignorant alike of person and of place!
Not as intruders come we: but were tost
By winds and waters on this savage coast.
Vouchsafe thy answer; victims oft shall fall
By this right hand, while on thy name we call!"

Then Venus; — " Offerings these which I disclaim
The Tyrian Maids who chase the sylvan game
Bear thus a quiver slung their necks behind,
With purple buskins thus their ankles bind;
Learn, Wanderers, that a Punic Realm you see.
Tyrians the men, Agenor's progeny;
But Lybian deem the soil; the natives are
Haughty and fierce, intractable in war.
Here Dido reigns; from Tyre compelled to flee
By an unnatural Brother's perfidy;
Deep was the wrong; nor would it aught avail
Should we do more than skim the doleful tale.
Sichaeus loved her as his wedded Mate,
The richest Lord of the Phoenician State;
A Virgin She, when from her Father's hands
By love induced, she passed to nuptial bands;
Unhappy Union! for to evil prone,
Worst of bad men, her Brother held the throne;
Dire fury came among them, and, made bold
By that blind appetite, the thirst of gold,
He, feeling not, or scorning what was due
To a Wife's tender love, Sichaeus slew;
Rushed on him unawares, and laid him low
Before the Altar, with an impious blow.
His arts concealed the crime, and gave vain scope
In Dido's bosom to a trembling hope.
But in a dream appeared the unburied Man,
Lifting a visage wondrous pale and wan;
Urged her to instant flight, and showed the Ground
Where hoards of ancient treasure might be found,
Needful assistance. By the Vision swayed,
Dido looks out for fellowship and aid.
They meet, who loathe the Tyrant, or who fear;
And, as some well-trimmed Ships were lying near,
This help they seized; and o'er the water fled
With all Pygmalion's wealth; — a Woman at their head.
The Exiles reached the Spot, where soon your eyes
Shall see the Turrets of New Carthage rise;
There purchased BARCA ; so they named the Ground
From the bull's hide whose thongs had girt it round.
Now say — who are Ye? Whence and whither bound?"

He answered, deeply sighing, " To their springs
Should I trace back the principles of things
For you, at leisure listening to our woes,
Vesper, mid gathering shadows to repose,
Might lead the day, before the Tale would close.
— From ancient Troy, if haply ye have heard
The name of Troy, through various seas we steered,
Until on Lybian Shores an adverse blast
By chance not rare our shattered vessels cast.
Aeneas am I, wheresoe'er I go
Carrying the Gods I rescued from the Foe,
When Troy was overthrown. A Man you see
Famed above Earth for acts of piety;
Italy is my wished-for resting place;
There doth my Country lie, among a Race
Sprung from high Jove. The Phrygian Sea I tried
With thrice ten Ships which Ida's Grove supplied,
My Goddess Mother pointing out the way,
Nor did unwilling Fates oppose their sway.
Seven, scarcely, of that number now are left
By tempests torn; — myself unknown, bereft,
And destitute, explore the Lybian Waste,
Alike from Europe and from Asia chased."
He spake; nor haply at this point had closed
His mournful words: but Venus interposed.

" Whoe'er thou art, I trust, the heavenly Powers
Disown thee not, so near the Punic Towers;
But hasten to the Queen's imperial Court;
Thy Friends survive; their Ships are safe in port,
Indebted for the shelter which they find
To altered courses of the rough North-wind;
Unless fond Parents taught my simple youth
Deceitful auguries, I announce the truth.
Behold yon twelve fair Swans, a joyous troop!
Them did the Bird of Jove, with threatening swoop
Rout, in mid-Heaven dispersed; but now again
Have they assembled, and in ordered train
These touch, while those look down upon, the plain,
Hovering, and wheeling round with tuneful voice.
— As in recovered union all rejoice;
So, with their Crews, thy Ships in harbour lie,
Or to some haven's mouth are drawing nigh
With every Sail full-spread; but Thou proceed;
And fear no hindrance where thy path shall lead."

She spake; and, as she turned away, all bright
Appeared her neck, imbued with roseate light;
And from the exalted region of her head
Ambrosial hair a sudden fragrance shed,
Odours divinely breathing; — her Vest flowed
Down to her feet; — and gait and motion showed
The unquestionable Goddess. Whom his eyes
Had seen and whom his soul could recognize,
His filial voice pursueth as she flies.

" Why dost Thou, cruel as the rest, delude
Thy Son with Phantoms evermore renewed?
Why not allow me hand with hand to join,
To hear thy genuine voice, and to reply with mine?"
This chiding uttered from a troubled breast,
He to the appointed walls his steps addressed.
But Venus round him threw, as on they fare,
Impenetrable veil of misty air;
That none might see, or touch them with rude hand,
Obstruct their journey, or its cause demand.
She, borne aloft, resumes the joyful road
That leads to Paphos — her beloved abode:
There stands her Temple; garlands fresh and fair
Breathe round a hundred Altars hung, which there
Burn with Sabean incense, scenting all the air.

They who had measured a swift course were now
Climbing, as swift, a hill of lofty brow,
That overhangs wide compass of the Town,
And on the turrets, which it fronts, looks down.
Aeneas views the City — pile on pile
Rising — a place of sordid Huts erewhile;
And, as he looks, the gates, the stretching ways,
The stir, the din, increasing wonder raise.
The Tyrians work — one spirit in the whole;
These stretch the walls; these labour to uproll
Stones for the Citadel, with all their might;
These, for new Structures having marked a site,
Intrench the circuit. Some on laws debate,
Or choose a Senate for the infant State;
Some dig the haven out; some toil to place
A Theatre, on deep and solid base;
Some from the rock hew columns, to compose
A goodly ornament for future Shows.
— Fresh summer calls the Bees such tasks to ply
Through flowery grounds, beneath a summer sky;
When first they lead their progeny abroad,
Each fit to undertake his several load;
Or in a mass the liquid produce blend,
And with pure nectar every cell distend;
Or, fast as homeward Labourers arrive,
Receive the freight they bring; or mustering, drive
The Drones, a sluggard people, from the hive.
Glows the vast work; while thyme-clad hills and plains
Scent the pure honey that rewards their pains.
" Oh fortunate!" the Chief, Aeneas, cries
As on the aspiring Town he casts his eyes,
" Fortunate Ye, whose walls are free to rise!"
Then, strange to tell! with mist around him thrown,
In crowds he mingles, yet is seen by none.

Within the Town, a central Grove displayed
Its ample texture of delightful shade.
The storm-vexed Tyrians, newly-landed, found
A hopeful sign while digging there the ground;
The head of a fierce horse from earth they drew,
By Juno's self presented to their view;
Presage of martial fame, and hardy toil
Bestowed through ages on a generous soil.
Sidonian Dido here a Structure high
Raised to the tutelary Deity,
Rich with the Offerings through the Temple poured,
And bright with Juno's Image, there adored.
High rose, with steps, the brazen Porch; the Beams
With brass were fastened; and metallic gleams
Flashed from the valves of brazen doors, forth-sent
While on resounding hinges to and fro they went.
Within this Grove Aeneas first beheld
A novel sight, by which his fears were quelled;
Here first gave way to hope, so long withstood,
And looked through present ill to future good.
For while, expectant of the Queen, the stores
Of that far-spreading Temple he explores;
Admires the strife of labour; nor forbears
To ponder o'er the lot of noble cares
Which the young City for herself prepares;
He meets the Wars of Ilium; every Fight,
In due succession, offered to his sight.
There he beholds Atrides, Priam here,
And that stern Chief who was to both severe.
He stopped; and, not without a sigh, exclaimed:
" By whom, Achates! hath not Troy been named?
What region of the earth but overflows
With us, and the memorials of our woes?
Lo Priamus! Here also do they raise
To virtuous deeds fit monument of praise;
Tears for the frail estate of human kind
Are shed; and mortal changes touch the mind."
He spake (nor might the gushing tears controul);
And with an empty Picture feeds his soul.

He saw the Greeks fast flying o'er the plain,
The Trojan Youth — how in pursuit they strain!
There, o'er the Phrygians routed in the war,
Crested Achilles hanging from his Car.
Next, to near view the painted wall presents
The fate of Rhesus, and his snow-white tents,
In the first sleep of silent night, betrayed
To the wide-wasting sword of Diomed,
Who to the camp the fiery horses led,
Ere they from Trojan stalls had tasted food,
Or stooped their heads to drink Scamander's flood.
— The Stripling Troilus he next espied,
Flying, his arms now lost, or flung aside;
Ill-matched with fierce Achilles! From the fight
He, by his horses borne in desperate flight,
Cleaves to his empty Chariot, on the plain
Supinely stretched, yet grasping still the rein;
Along the earth are dragged his neck and hair;
The dust is marked by his inverted spear.
Meanwhile, with tresses long and loose, a train
Of Trojan Matrons seek Minerva's Fane
As on they bear the dedicated Veil,
They beat their own sad breasts with suppliant wail.
The Goddess heeds not offerings, prayers, nor cries,
And on the ground are fixed her sullen eyes.
— Thrice had incensed Achilles whirled amain
About Troy Wall, the Corse of Hector slain,
And barters now that corse for proffered gold.
What grief, the spoils and Chariot to behold!
And, suppliant, near his Friend's dead body, stands
Old Priam, stretching forth his unarmed hands!
Himself, 'mid Grecian Chiefs, he can espy;
And saw the oriental blazonry
Of swarthy Memnon, and the Host he heads;
Her lunar shields Penthesilea leads;
A zone her mutilated breast hath bound;
And She, exulting on the embattled ground
A Virgin Warrior, with a Virgin Train,
Dares in the peril to conflict with Men.

While on these animated pictures gazed
The Dardan Chief, enwrapt, disturbed, amazed;
With a long retinue of Youth, the Queen
Ascends the Temple; — lovely was her mien;
And her form beautiful as Earth has seen;
Thus, where Eurotas flows, or on the heights
Of Cynthus, where Diana oft delights
To train her Nymphs, and lead the Choirs along,
Oreads, in thousands gathering, round her throng;
Where'er she moves, where'er the Goddess bears
Her pendant sheaf of arrows, she appears
Far, far above the immortal Company;
Latona's breast is thrilled with silent ecstasy.
Even with such lofty bearing Dido passed
Among the busy crowd; — such looks she cast
Urging the various works, with mind intent
On future empire. Through the Porch she went,
And compassed round with armed Attendants, sate
Beneath the Temple's dome, upon a Throne of State.
There, laws she gave; divided justly there
The labour; or by lot assigned to each his share.
When, turning from the Throne a casual glance,
Aeneas saw an eager Crowd advance
With various Leaders, whom the storms of Heaven
Had scattered, and to other shores had driven.
With Antheus and Sergestus there appeared
The brave Cloanthes, — followers long endeared.
Joy smote his heart, joy tempered with strange awe;
Achates, in like sort, by what he saw
Was smitten; and the hands of both were bent
On instant greeting; but they feared the event.
Stifling their wish, within that cloud involved,
They wait until the mystery shall be solved —
What has befallen their Friends; upon what shore
The Fleet is left, and what they would implore;
For Delegates from every Ship they were,
And sought the Temple with a clamorous prayer.

All entered, — and, leave given, with tranquil breast
Ilioneus preferred their joint request:
" O Queen! empowered by Jupiter to found
A hopeful City on this desart ground;
To whom he gives the curb, and guiding rein
Of Justice, a proud People to restrain,
We, wretched Trojans, rescued from a Fleet
Long tossed through every Sea, thy aid entreat;
Let, at thy voice, the unhallowed fire forbear
To touch our ships; a righteous People spare;
And on our fortunes look with nearer care!
We neither seek as plunderers your abodes,
Nor would our swords molest your household Gods;
Our spirit tempts us not such course to try;
Nor do the Vanquished lift their heads so high.
There is a Country called by Men of Greece
Hesperia, strong in arms, the soil of large increase,
Oenotrians held it; Men of later fame
Call it Italia, from their Leader's name.
That Land we sought; when, wrapt in mist, arose
Orion, helped by every wind that blows;
Dispersed us utterly — on shallows cast;
And we, we only, gained your shores at last.
What race of man is here? Was ever yet
The unnatural treatment known which we have met?
What country bears with customs that deny,
To shipwrecked men, such hospitality
As the sands offer on the naked beach,
And the first quiet of the Land they reach?
— Arms were our greeting; yet, if ye despise
Man and his power, look onward, and be wise;
The Gods for right and wrong have awful memories.
A man to no one second in the care
Of justice, nor in piety and war,
Ruled over us; if yet Aeneas treads
On earth, nor has been summoned to the shades,
Fear no repentance if, in acts of grace
Striving with him, thou gain the foremost place.
Nor want we, in Trinacria, towns and plains,
Where, sprung from Trojan blood, Acestes reigns.
Grant leave to draw our Ships upon your Shores,
Thence to refit their shattered hulks and oars.
Were Friends and Chief restored, whom now we mourn,
We to the Italian Coast with joy would turn,
Should Italy lie open to our aim;
But if our welfare be an empty name,
And Thou, best Father of the Family
Of Troy, hast perished in the Lybian Sea,
And young Iülus sank, engulfed with thee,
Then be it ours, at least, to cross the foam
Of the Sicilian Deep, and seek the home
Prepared by good Acestes, whence we come."

Thus spake Ilioneus: his Friends around
Declared their sanction by a murmuring sound.

With downcast looks, brief answer Dido made;
" Trojans, be griefs dismissed, anxieties allayed.
The pressure of occasion, and a reign"
Yet new, exact these rigours, and constrain
The jealous vigilance my coasts maintain.
The Aenean Race, with that heroic Town —
And widely-blazing war — to whom are they unknown?
Not so obtuse the Punic breasts we bear;
Nor does the Giver of the Day so far
From this our Tyrian City yoke his Car.
But if Hesperia be your wished-for bourne,
Or to Trinacrian shores your prows would turn,
Then, with all aids that may promote your weal,
Ye shall depart; — but if desire ye feel,
Fixed, in this growing Realm, to share my fate,
Yours are the walls which now I elevate.
Haste, and withdraw your Galleys from the sea,
— Trojans and Tyrians shall be one to me.
Would, too, that storm-compelled as ye have been,
The Person of your Chief might here be seen!
By trusty servants shall my shores be traced
To the last confines of the Lybian Waste,
For He, the Castaway of stormy floods,
May roam through cities, or in savage woods."

Thus did the Queen administer relief
For their dejected hearts; and to the Chief,
While both were burning with desire to break
From out the darksome cloud, Achates spake.
" Son of a Goddess, what resolves ensue
From this deliverance whose effects we view?
All things are safe — thy Fleet and Friends restored
Save one, whom in our sight the Sea devoured;
All else respondent to thy Mother's word."
He spake; the circumambient cloud anon
Melts and dissolves, the murky veil is gone;
And left Aeneas, as it passed away,
With godlike mien and shoulders, standing in full day.
For that same Parent of celestial race
Had shed upon his hair surpassing grace;
And, breathing o'er her Son the purple light
Of youth, had glorified his eyes, made bright,
Like those of Heaven, with joyance infinite.
So stood he forth, an unexpected Guest,
And, while all wondered, thus the Queen addressed.

" He whom ye seek am I, Aeneas — flung
By storms the Lybian solitudes among.
O Sole, who for the unutterable state
Of Troy art humanly compassionate;
Who not alone a shelter dost afford
To the thin relics of the Grecian sword,
Perpetually exhausted by pursuit
Of dire mischance, of all things destitute,
But in thy purposes with them hast shared
City and home; — not we, who thus have fared,
Not we, not all the Dardan Race that live,
Scattered through Earth, sufficient thanks can give.
The Gods (if they the Pious watch with love,
If Justice dwell about us, or above)
And a mind conscious to itself of right,
Shall, in fit measure thy deserts requite!
What happy Age gave being to such worth?
What blessed Parents, Dido! brought thee forth?
While down their channels Rivers seaward flow,
While shadowy Groves sweep round the mountain's brow,
While ether feeds the stars, where'er be cast
My lot, whatever Land by me be traced,
Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise, shall last."
He spake; and turning towards the Trojan Band,
Salutes Ilioneus with the better hand,
And grasps Serestus with the left — then gave
Like greeting to the rest, to Gyas brave
And brave Cloanthes.
Inwardly amazed,
Sidonian Dido on the Chief had gazed
When first he met her view; — his words like wonder raised.
" What Force," said She, " pursues thee — hath impelled
To these wild shores? In Thee have I beheld
That Trojan whom bright Venus, on the shore
Of Phrygian Simois, to Anchises bore?
And well do I recall to mind the day
When to our Sidon Teucer found his way,
An Outcast from his native Borders driven,
With hope to win new Realms by aid from Belus given,
Belus, my Father, then the conquering Lord
Of Cyprus newly-ravaged by his sword.
Thenceforth I knew the fate of Troy that rings
Earth round, — thy Name, and the Pelasgian kings.
Teucer himself, with liberal tongue, would raise
His Adversaries to just heights of praise,
And vaunt a Trojan lineage with fair proof;
Then welcome, noble Strangers, to our Roof!
— Me, too, like Fortune, after devious strife
Stayed in this Land, to breathe a calmer life;
From no light ills which on myself have pressed,
Pitying I learn to succour the distressed."
These words pronounced, and mindful to ordain
Fit sacrifice, she issues from the Fane,
And towards the Palace leads Aeneas and his Train.
Nor less regardful of his distant Friends,
To the sea coast she hospitably sends
Twice ten selected steers, a hundred lambs
Swept from the plenteous herbage with their dams;
A hundred bristly ridges of huge swine,
And what the God bestows in sparkling wine.
But the interior Palace doth display
Its whole magnificence in set array;
And in the centre of a spacious Hall
Are preparations for high festival;
There, gorgeous vestments — skilfully enwrought
With Eastern purple; and huge tables — fraught
With massive argentry; there, carved in gold,
Through long, long series, the achievements bold
Of Forefathers, each imaged in his place,
From the beginning of the ancient Race.

Aeneas, whose parental thoughts obey
Their natural impulse, brooking no delay,
Dispatched the prompt Achates, to report
The new events, and lead Ascanius to the Court.
Ascanius, for on him the Father's mind
Now rests, as if to that sole care confined;
And bids him bring, attendant on the Boy,
The richest Presents, snatched from burning Troy;
A Robe of tissue stiff with shapes exprest
In threads of gleaming gold; an upper Vest
Round which acanthus twines its yellow flowers;
By Argive Helen worn in festal hours;
Her Mother Leda's wonderous gift — and brought
To Ilium from Mycenae when she sought
Those unpermitted nuptials; — thickly set
With golden gems, a twofold coronet;
And Sceptre which Ilione of yore,
Eldest of Priam's royal Daughters, wore,
And orient Pearls, which on her neck she bore.
This to perform, Achates speeds his way
To the Ships anchored in that peaceful Bay.

But Cytherea, studious to invent
Arts yet untried, upon new counsels bent,
Resolves that Cupid, changed in form and face
To young Ascanius, should assume his place;
Present the maddening gifts, and kindle heat
Of passion at the bosom's inmost seat.
She dreads the treacherous house, the double tongue;
She burns, she frets — by Juno's rancour stung;
The calm of night is powerless to remove
These cares, and thus she speaks to winged Love:

" O son, my strength, my power! who dost despise
(What, save thyself, none dares through earth and skies)
The giant-quelling bolts of Jove, I flee,
O son, a suppliant to thy Deity!
What perils meet Aeneas in his course,
How Juno's hate with unrelenting force
Pursues thy brother — this to thee is known;
And oft-times hast thou made my griefs thine own.
Him now the generous Dido by soft chains
Of bland entreaty at her court detains;
Junonian hospitalities prepare
Such apt occasion that I dread a snare.
Hence, ere some hostile god can intervene,
Would I, by previous wiles, inflame the Queen
With passion for Aeneas, such strong love
That at my beck, mine only, she shall move.
Hear, and assist; — the father's mandate calls
His young Ascanius to the Tyrian walls;
He comes, my dear delight, — and costliest things
Preserved from fire and flood for presents brings.
Him will I take, and in close covert keep,
'Mid groves Idalian, lulled to gentle sleep,
Or on Cythera's far-sequestered steep,
That he may neither know what hope is mine,
Nor by his presence traverse the design.
Do Thou, but for a single night's brief space,
Dissemble; be that boy in form and face!
And when enraptured Dido shall receive
Thee to her arms, and kisses interweave
With many a fond embrace, while joy runs high,
And goblets crown the proud festivity,
Instil thy subtle poison, and inspire,
At every touch, an unsuspected fire."

Love, at the word, before his mother's sight
Puts off his wings, and walks, with proud delight,
Like young Iülus; but the gentlest dews
Of slumber Venus sheds, to circumfuse
The true Ascanius steeped in placid rest;
Then wafts him, cherished on her careful breast,
Through upper air to an Idalian glade,
Where he on soft amaracus is laid,
With breathing flowers embraced, and fragrant shade.
But Cupid, following cheerily his guide
Achates, with the Gifts to Carthage hied;
And, as the hall he entered, there, between
The sharers of her golden couch, was seen
Reclined in festal pomp the Tyrian queen.
The Trojans too (Aeneas at their head),
On couches lie, with purple overspread:
Meantime in canisters is heaped the bread,
Pellucid water for the hands is borne,
And napkins of smooth texture, finely shorn.
Within are fifty Handmaids, who prepare,
As they in order stand, the dainty fare;
And fume the household deities with store
Of odorous incense; while a hundred more
Matched with an equal number of like age,
But each of manly sex, a docile page,
Marshal the banquet, giving with due grace
To cup or viand its appointed place.
The Tyrians rushing in, an eager Band,
Their painted couches seek, obedient to command.
They look with wonder on the gifts — they gaze
Upon Iülus, dazzled with the rays
That from his ardent countenance are flung,
And charmed to hear his simulating tongue;
Nor pass unpraised the robe and veil divine,
Round which the yellow flowers and wandering foliage twine.

But chiefly Dido, to the coming ill
Devoted, strives in vain her vast desires to fill;
She views the gifts; upon the child then turns
Insatiable looks, and gazing burns.
To ease a father's cheated love he hung
Upon Aeneas, and around him clung;
Then seeks the queen; with her his arts he tries;
She fastens on the boy enamoured eyes,
Clasps in her arms, nor weens (O lot unblest!)
How great a god, incumbent o'er her breast,
Would fill it with his spirit. He, to please
His Acidalian mother, by degrees
Blots out Sichaeus, studious to remove
The dead, by influx of a living love,
By stealthy entrance of a perilous guest
Troubling a heart that had been long at rest.

Now when the viands were withdrawn, and ceased
The first division of the splendid feast,
While round a vacant board the chiefs recline,
Huge goblets are brought forth; they crown the wine;
Voices of gladness roll the walls around;
Those gladsome voices from the courts rebound;
From gilded rafters many a blazing light
Depends, and torches overcome the night.
The minutes fly — till, at the queen's command,
A bowl of state is offered to her hand:
Then She, as Belus wont, and all the line
From Belus, filled it to the brim with wine;
Silence ensued. " O Jupiter, whose care
Is hospitable Dealing, grant my prayer!
Productive day be this of lasting joy
To Tyrians, and these exiles driven from Troy;
A day to future generations dear!
Let Bacchus, donor of soul-quickening cheer,
Be present; kindly Juno, be thou near!
And, Tyrians, may your choicest favours wait
Upon this hour, the bond to celebrate!"
She spake and shed an offering on the board;
Then sipped the bowl whence she the wine had poured
And gave to Bitias, urging the prompt lord;
He raised the bowl, and took a long deep draught;
Then every chief in turn the beverage quaffed.

Graced with redundant hair, Iopas sings
The lore of Atlas, to resounding strings,
The labours of the Sun, the lunar wanderings;
Whence human kind, and brute; what natural powers
Engender lightning, whence are falling showers.
He chaunts Arcturus, — that fraternal twain
The glittering Bears, — the Pleiads fraught with rain;
— Why suns in winter, shunning Heaven's steep heights
Post seaward, — what impedes the tardy nights.
The learned song from Tyrian hearers draws
Loud shouts, — the Trojans echo the applause.
— But, lengthening out the night with converse new,
Large draughts of love unhappy Dido drew;
Of Priam asked, of Hector — o'er and o'er —
What arms the son of bright Aurora wore; —
What steeds the car of Diomed could boast;
Among the Leaders of the Grecian host
How looked Achilles — their dread paramount —
" But nay — the fatal wiles, O guest, recount,
Retrace the Grecian cunning from its source,
Your own grief and your Friends' — your wandering course;
For now, till this seventh summer have ye ranged
The sea, or trod the earth, to peace estranged."