Aeneas' Firmness

What Pangs the tender Breast of Dido tore,
When, from the Tow'r, she saw the cover'd Shore,
And heard the Shouts of Sailors from afar,
Mix'd with the Murmurs of the wat'ry War?
All pow'rful Love, what Changes canst thou cause
In Human Hearts, subjected to thy Laws!
Once more her haughty Soul the Tyrant bends;
To Pray'rs and mean Submissions she descends.
...
A short delay is all I ask him now,
A pause of Grief; an interval from Woe:
'Till my soft Soul be temper'd to sustain
Accustom'd Sorrows, and inur'd to Pain.
If you in Pity grant this one Request,
My Death shall leave you of my Crown possess'd.
This mournful message, Pious Anna bears,
And seconds, with her own, her Sister's Tears:
But all her Arts are still employ'd in vain;
Again she comes, and is refus'd again.
His harden'd Heart nor Pray'rs nor Threatnings move;
Fate, and the God, had stop'd his Ears to Love.
As when the Winds their airy Quarrel try;
Justling from ev'ry quarter of the Sky;
This way and that, the Mountain Oak they bend,
His Boughs they shatter, and his Branches rend;
With Leaves, and falling Mast, they spread the Ground,
The hollow Vallies echo to the Sound:
Unmov'd, the Royal Plant their Fury mocks;
Or shaken, clings more closely to the Rocks:
Far as he shoots his tow'ring Head on high,
So deep in Earth his fix'd Foundations lye.
No less a storm the Trojan Heroe bears;
Thick Messages and loud Complaints he hears;
And bandy'd Words, still beating on his Ears.
Sighs, Groans and Tears, proclaim his inward Pains,
But the firm purpose of his Heart remains.
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Virgil
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