Classic Poem

THE REALM OF THE BLEST .

Finally, when this was done, and the rites of the goddess completed,
Into glad places they come, and delectable meadows, embosomed
Deep in delightful groves, the blessed abode of the righteous.
Here a sublimer air over-mantles the valleys with purple;
Here their own stars they know, and their own sun shineth above them.
Some, in grassy courts, are training their disciplined bodies,
Or, on the yellow sand, are contending in friendly encounter;
Others are treading a dance, and marking the measure with carols;
Nor does the Thracian bard, apparelled in long flowing garments,
Fail to awake from his lyre the varying notes of the octave,
Striking them now with his fingers, and now with an ivory plectrum.
Here is the ancient line of Teucer's illustrious children,
Heroes noble of soul, and nurtured in happier ages:
Ilus, Assaracus also, and Dardanus, Ilium's founder.
Yonder the arms and the empty cars of the heroes delight him;
Spears stand fixed in the earth, and, ranging at large and untethered,
Horses are grazing the plain. All the fondness for car and for armour
Ever confessed in life, their delight in the care of their shining
Steeds, abides unchanged long after the body is buried.
Others to right and left along the bright sward are discovered
Feasting, and chanting hymns of glad thanksgiving in chorus,
Deep in a fragrant grove of laurel, from whence to the valley
Rolls the abundant tide of Eridanus down through the forest.
Here are the heroes who fell while fighting the wars of their country,
Here are the holy priests whose lives upon earth were unsullied,
Here the poets divine, who sang as inspired by Apollo, —
All who have dignified life by the arts they have won by invention,
All who have worthily earned the lasting regard of their fellows,
All these, having their brows encircled with snow-white fillets,
Scattered in various groups, the Sibyl addresses as follows —
Chiefly Musaeus, for him the most numerous band of companions
Gather about and revere, as he stands head and shoulders above them: —
" Tell us, ye fortunate souls, and thou most illustrious poet,
Where is the region, and where the place that is holding Anchises?
For, for his sake are we come, and have crossed the great river of Darkness. "
Thereupon, briefly the hero replied to the questioning Sibyl: —
" None hath a changeless abode; we dwell in the shadowy forests,
Couch by the banks of streams, and wander through rill-freshened meadows;
Yet if your hearts are so eagerly bent on fulfilling your mission,
Traverse this ridge, and soon I will set a smooth pathway before you. "
Speaking, and taking the lead, he showed them, far down in the valley,
Sunlighted plains, and then they left the tall hilltops behind them.
But, in the midst of the green and hill-sheltered valley, Anchises
Chanced to be fondly reviewing the spirits imprisoned, and destined
Soon to the light of earth. Yes! there he stood reckoning over
All the long roll of his line, and all his beloved descendants,
Reading the fortune and fate, and the conduct and wars of the heroes.
When he discovers Æneas approaching across the green meadow,
Eagerly both his arms are opened wide to receive him;
Wet are his cheeks with tears, and his lips break forth in rejoicing: —
" Comest thou, then, at last, and thy long-trusted love for thy father,
Hath it the hard way won? Am I suffered to gaze on thy features,
O my son; may we speak in the voices of old to each other?
This I kept ever in mind, for this I was trusting the future,
Counting the lingering days; nor hath my heart's longing deceived me.
Borne over how many lands, and o'er what expanses of ocean,
Thee I receive, and by perils how great hath my son been encompassed!
How have I feared lest harm should befall thee in Libya's kingdom! "
He, however, " O father, thine image, thy sorrowful image,
Fronting me often, constrained to continue my course to thy dwelling;
Moored is our fleet in the Tuscan sea. O give me, my father,
Give me thy hand to grasp; forbid thou me not to embrace thee! "
Wet were his cheeks with tears, while thus he stood earnestly pleading;
Thrice, he attempted to throw his arms 'round the neck of his father,
Thrice, unavailing clasped, the image denied his embraces
Like the light kiss of the wind, still more like a dream in its swiftness.
Meanwhile Æneas perceives a lonely grove in a distant
Part of the valley, and hears the whispering leaves of a forest,
Also peaceful abodes on the shore of the river of Lethe.
Hovering round about were peoples and tribes without number;
And, as in meadows where bees, in the cloudless sunshine of summer,
Cluster on varied flowers, and swarm about snow-white lilies,
So the whole plain is filled with the murmur of shadowy legions.
Dazed by so wondrous a sight, and knowing not what it portended,
Straightway, Æneas inquired the name of the far distant river,
Who were the men that were thronging its banks in so mighty a concourse.
Father Anchises replied: " The souls to whom fate hath appointed
Reincarnation are there, on the shore of the river of Lethe,
Endless release from care, and eternal oblivion quaffing.
These have I long desired to marshal in order before thee,
Naming thee all their names, and rehearsing our line of descendants,
So that in Italy won, thy joy and mine own may be greater. "
" Must we, my father, believe that hence to the air and the daylight
Some of the souls will arise, and return into burden-some bodies?
What so dread desire have sorrowful spirits for living? "
" Surely, my son, I will answer, and leave thee no longer in darkness, "
Father Anchises replies, and discusses each question in order.
" In the beginning the air, and the earth, and the waters of ocean,
Also the moon's bright orb, the sun, and the great constellations,
Thrilled with an indwelling soul; and a spirit, pervading each atom,
Stirred the whole mass, and informed each part of the boundless creation:
Whence the race of men, and beasts, and birds was engendered, —
Yea, and the monsters that breed 'neath the marble plain of the ocean.
Theirs is the vigour of fire, and celestial the source of their being,
Save as inimical bodies embarrass their freedom, and earth-born
Frames and corruptible members have deadened the fire of the spirit.
Hence are their fears and hopes, their griefs and their joys; and, in darkness,
Prisoned in sightless clay, they attain not the heavenly vision:
Nay, when the last faint glimmer of life shall have gone from the body,
Not even then shall all ills, nor all traces of carnal corruption,
Leave the unhappy soul; and it must be that manifold evils,
Slowly and deeply acquired, are ingrained in a marvellous manner.
Therefore by pain are they purged, and penance for former transgression
Pay to the uttermost; some, suspended, are spread to the fleeting
Winds; from others the stain of sin is washed by a whirling
Torrent of water away, or the spirit is chastened by burning;
Each his own chastisement bears; thence unto Elysium's freedom
We are dismissed, and we few in the fields of the blest are abiding
Till, when our cycle be ended, a day in the far distant future
Purge from the purified soul the last lingering vestige of evil,
Leaving a deathless flame of pure uncontaminate spirit.
After these souls have completed a full millennial circle,
God calls them all in a numberless band to the river of Lethe,
That as the future dawns, the past may be wholly forgotten,
And that again may be born a desire for the life of the body. "
Silent Anchises became, then guided his son and the Sibyl
Through the gathering throng to the midst of the murmuring concourse.
Then he selected a mound from whence to survey the long column
Threading the distant plain, and study the faces approaching.