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Black death attends behind the Grecian wall,
And great Idomeneus shall boast thy fall.
Fierce to the left he drives, where from the plain
The flying Grecians strove their ships to gain;
Swift through the wall their horse and chariots pass'd,
The gates half-open'd to receive the last.
Thither, exulting in his force, he flies:

His following host with clamours rend the skies;
To plunge the Grecians headlong in the main,
Such their proud hopes, but all their hopes were vain.
To guard the gates, two mighty chiefs attend, 141
Who from the Lapiths' warlike race descend;
This Polypates, great Perithous' heir,
And that Leonteus, like the god of war.
As two tall oaks, before the wall they rise;
Their roots in earth, their heads amidst the skies:
Whose spreading arms with leafy honours crown'd,
Forbid the tempest, and protect the ground;
High on the hill appears their stately form,
And their deep roots for ever brave the storm.
So graceful these, and so the shock they stand,
Of raging Asius, and his furious band.
Orestes, Acamas, in front appear,

And Enomaus and Thoon close the rear.

200

To godlike Hector and his matchless might
Was owed the glory of the destined fight.
Like deeds of arms through all the forts were tried,
And all the gates sustain'd an equal tide;
Through the long walls the stony showers were heard,
The blaze of flames, the flash of arms appear'd.
The spirit of a god my breast inspire,
To raise each act to life, and sing with fire!
While Greece unconquer'd kept alive the war,
Secure of death, confiding in despair;
And all her guardian gods, in deep dismay,
With unassisting arms deplored the day.

210

E'en yet the dauntless Lapitha maintain The dreadful pass, and round them heap the slain. First Damasus, by Polypates' steel Pierced through his helmet's brazen visor, fell; The weapon drank the mingled brains and gore; The warrior sinks, tremendous now no more! Next Ormenus and Pylon yield their breath; 150 Nor less Leonteus strews the field with death: First through the belt Hippomachus he gored, Then sudden waved his unresisted sword; Antiphates, as through the ranks he broke, The falchion struck, and fate pursued the stroke; lämenus, Orestes, Menon, bled;

In vain their clamours shake the ambient fields, In vain around them beat their hollow shields; The fearless brothers on the Grecians call, To guard their navies, and defend the wall. E'en when they saw Troy's sable troops impend, And Greece tumultuous from her towers descend, Forth from the portals rush'd the intrepid pair, 161 Opposed their breasts, and stood themselves the war. So two wild boars spring furious from their den, Roused with the cries of dogs and voice of men; On every side the crackling trees they tear, And root the shrubs, and lay the forest bare; They gnash their tusks, with fire their eye-balls roll, Till some wide wound lets out their mighty soul. Around their heads the whistling javelins sung, With sounding strokes their brazen targets rung; 170 Fierce was the fight, while yet the Grecian powers Maintain'd the walls, and mann'd the lofty towers: To save their fleet, the last efforts they try, And stones and darts in mingled tempests fly. As when sharp Boreas blows abroad, and brings The dreary winter on his frozen wings; Beneath the low-hung clouds the sheets of snow Descend, and whiten all the fields below: So fast the darts on either army pour, So down the rampires rolls the rocky shower; Heavy and thick, resound the batter'd shields, And the deaf echo rattles round the fields. With shame repulsed, with grief and fury driven, The frantic Asius thus accuses heaven: In powers immortal who shall now believe? Can those too flatter, and can Jove deceive? What man could doubt but Troy's victorious power, Should humble Greece, and this her fatal hour? But like when wasps from hollow crannies drive, To guard the entrance of their common hive, Darkening the rock, while with unwearied wings They strike the assailants, and infix their stings; A race determined, that to death contend: So fierce these Greeks their last retreats defend. Gods! shall two warriors only guard their gates, Repel an army, and defraud the fates?

These empty accents mingled with the wind, Nor moved great Jove's unalterable mind;

And round him rose a monument of dead.

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Meantime, the bravest of the Trojan crew, Bold Hector and Polydamas pursue; Fierce with impatience on the works to fall, And wrap in rolling flames the fleet and wall. These on the farther bank now stood and gazed, By heaven alarm'd, by prodigies amazed: A signal omen stopp'd the passing host, Their martial fury in their wonder lost. Jove's bird on sounding pinions beat the skies; A bleeding serpent of enormous size His talons truss'd: alive, and curling round, He stung the bird, whose throat received the wound: Mad with the smart he drops the fatal prey, In airy circles wings his painful way,

240

Floats on the winds, and rends the heavens with cries:
Amidst the host the fallen serpent lies.
They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll'd,
And Jove's portent with beating hearts behold.
Then first Polydamus the silence broke,
Long weigh'd the signal, and to Hector spoke :

How oft, my brother, thy reproach I bear,
For words well-meant, and sentiments sincere!
True to those counsels which I judge the best,
180 I tell the faithful dictates of my breast.

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To speak his thoughts, is every freeman's right,
In peace and war, in council and in fight;
And all I move, deferring to thy sway,
But tends to raise that power which I obey.
Then hear my words, nor may my words be vain:
Seek not, this day, the Grecian ships to gain?
For sure to warn us Jove his omen sent,
And thus my mind explains its clear event:
The victor eagle, whose sinister flight
Retards our host, and fills our hearts with fright,
Dismiss'd his conquest in the middle skies,
Allow'd to seize, but not possess the prize;
Thus though we gird with fires the Grecian fleet,
Though these proud bulwarks tumble at our feet,
Toils unforeseen, and fiercer are decreed;
More woes shall follow, and more heroes bleed.
So bodes my soul, and bids me thus advise:
For thus a skilful seer would read the skies.

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He stills the winds, and bids the skies to sleep;
Then pours
the silent tempest thick and deep:
And first the mountain tops are cover'd o'er,
270 Then the green fields, and then the sandy shore;
Bent with the weight the nodding woods are seen,
And one bright waste hides all the works of men : 340
The circling seas alone absorbing all,

To him then Hector with disdain return'd,
(Fierce as he spoke, his eyes with fury burn'd:)
Are these the faithful councils of thy tongue?
Thy will is partial, not thy reason wrong:
Or, if the purpose of thy heart thou vent,
Sure heaven resumes the little sense it lent.
What coward councils would thy madness move,
Against the word, the will reveal'd of Jove?
The leading sign, the irrevocable nod,
And happy thunders of the favouring god,
These shall I slight? and guide my wavering mind
By wandering birds, that flit with every wind?
Ye vagrants of the sky! your wings extend,
Or where the suns arise, or where descend;
To right, to left, unheeded take your way,
While I the dictates of high heaven obey.
Without a sign his sword the brave man draws,
And asks no omen but his country's cause.
But why shouldst thou suspect the war's success?
None fears it more, as none promotes it less:
Though all our chiefs amid yon ships expire,
Trust thy own cowardice to escape their fire.
Troy and her sons may find a general grave,
But thou canst live, for thou canst be a slave.
Yet should the fears that wary mind suggests
Spread their cold poison through our soldier's breasts,
My javelin can revenge so base a part,
And free the soul that quivers in thy heart.

Drink the dissolving fleeces as they fall.
So from each side increased the stony rain,
And the white ruin rises o'er the plain.

350

Thus godlike Hector and his troops contend
To force the ramparts, and the gates to rend;
Nor Troy could conquer, nor the Greeks would yiek,
280 Till great Sarpedon tower'd amid the field;
For mighty Jove inspired with martial flame
His matchless son, and urged him on to fame,
In arms he shines, conspicuous from afar,
And bears aloft his ample shield in air;
Within whose orb the thick bull-hides were roll'd,
Ponderous with brass, and bound with ductile gold;
And while two pointed javelins arm his hands,
Majestic moves along, and leads his Lycian bands.
So, press'd with hunger, from the mountain's brow
290 Descends a lion on the flocks below;

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So stalks the lordly savage o'er the plain,
In sullen majesty, and stern disdain:
In vain loud mastiffs bay him from afar,
And shepherds gall him with an iron war;
Regardless, furious, he pursues his way;
He foams, he roars, he rends the panting prey
Resolved alike, divine Sarpedon glows
With generous rage that drives him on the foes.
He views the towers, and meditates their fall,
300 To sure destruction dooms the aspiring wall;
Then casting on his friend an ardent look,
Fired with the thirst of glory, thus he spoke :
Why boast we, Glaucus! our extended reign,
Where Xanthus' streams enrich the Lycian plain,
Our numerous herds that range the fruitful field,
And hills where vines their purple harvest yield,
Our foaming bowls with purer nectar crown'd,
Our feasts enhanced with music's sprightly sound;
Why on those shores are we with joy survey'd,
Admired as heroes, and as gods obey'd,
Unless great acts superior merit prove,
And vindicate the bounteous powers above?
'Tis ours, the dignity they give to grace;
The first in valour, as the first in place:
That when with wondering eyes our martial bands
Behold our deeds transcending our commands,
Such, they may cry, deserve the sovereign state,
Whom those that envy, dare not imitate!
Could all our care elude the gloomy grave,
320 Which claims no less the fearful than the brave,
For lust of fame I should not vainly dare

310

Furious he spoke, and rushing to the wall,
Calls on his host; his host obey the call;
With ardour follow where their leader flies:
Redoubling clamours thunder in the skies.
Jove breathes a whirlwind from the hills of Ide,
And drifts of dust the clouded navy hide:
He fills the Greeks with terror and dismay,
And gives great Hector the predestined day.
Strong in themselves, but stronger in his aid,
Close to the works their rigid siege they laid.
In vain the mounds and massy beams defend,
While these they undermine, and those they rend;
Upheave the piles that prop the solid wall;
And heaps on heaps the smoky ruins fall.
Greece on her rampart stands the fierce alarms;
The crowded bulwarks blaze with waving arms,
Shield touching shield, a long refulgent row;
Whence hissing darts, incessant, rain below.
The bold Ajaces fly from tower to tower,
And rouse, with flame divine, the Grecian power
The generous impulse every Greek obeys;
Threats urge the fearful; and the valiant, praise.
Fellows in arms! whose deeds are known to fame,
And you whose ardour hopes an equal name!
Since not alike endued with force or art;
Behold a day when each may act his part!
A day to fire the brave, and warm the cold,
To gain new glories, or augment the old.
Urge those who stand; and those who faint, excite
Drown Hector's vaunts in loud exhorts of fight;
Conquest, not safety, fill the thoughts of all;
Seek not your fleet, but sally from the wall;
So Jove once more may drive their routed train,
And Troy lie trembling in her walls again.

Their ardour kindles all the Grecian powers;
And now the stones descend in heavier showers. 330
As when high Jove his sharp artillery forms,
And opes his cloudy magazine of storms;
In winter's bleak, uncomfortable reign,

A snowy inundation hides the plain;

380

In fighting fields, nor urge thy soul to war :- 390
But since, alas! ignoble age must come,
Disease, and death's inexorable doom;
The life which others pay, let us bestow,
And give to fame what we to nature owe;
Brave though we fall, and honour'd if we live,
Or let us glory gain, or glory give!

He said; his words the listening chief inspire
With equal warmth, and rouse the warrior's fire;
The troops pursue their leaders with delight,
Rush to the foe, and claim the promised fight.
Menestheus from on high the storm beheld
Threatening the fort, and blackening the field-

400

Around the walls he gazed, to view from far
What aid appear'd to avert the approaching war,
And saw where Teucer with the Ajaces stood,
Of fight insatiate, prodigal of blood.

In vain he calls; the din of helms and shields
Rings to the skies, and echoes through the fields,
The brazen hinges fly, the walls resound,
Heaven trembles, roar the mountains, thunders all the
ground.
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The chief, who fear'd some foe's insulting boast
Might stop the progress of his warlike host,
Conceal'd the wound, and leaping from his height,
Retired reluctant from the unfinish'd fight.

Divine Sarpedon with regret beheld
Disabled Glaucus slowly quit the field;
His beating breast with generous ardour glows,
He springs to fight, and flies upon the foes.
Alcmaön first was doom'd his force to feel;
Deep in his breast he plunged the pointed steel;
Then, from the yawning wound with fury tore
The spear, pursued by gushing streams of gore; 480
Down sinks the warrior with a thundering sound,
His brazen armour rings against the ground.
Swift to the battlement the victor flies,
Tugs with full force, and every nerve applies;
It shakes; the ponderous stones disjointed yield;
The rolling ruins smoke along the field.
420 A mighty breach appears, the walls lie bare ;
And, like a deluge, rushes in the war.

Then thus to Thoös: Hence with speed (he said,)
And urge the bold Ajaces to our aid:
Their strength united, best may help to bear
The bloody labours of the doubtful war:
Hither the Lycian princes bend their course,
The best and bravest of the hostile force.
But if too fiercely there the foes contend,
Let Telamon at least our towers defend,
And Teucer haste with his unerring bow,
To share the danger, and repel the foe.

Swift at the word, the herald speeds along
The lofty ramparts, through the martial throng,
And finds the heroes bathed in sweat and gore,
Opposed in combat on the dusty shore.
Ye valiant leaders of our warlike bands!
Your aid (said Thoös) Peteus' son demands.
Your strength, united, best may help to bear
The bloody labours of the doubtful war:
Thither the Lycian princes bend their course,
The best and bravest of the hostile force.
But if too fiercely here the foes contend,
At least let Telamon those towers defend,
And Teucer haste with his unerring bow,
To share the danger, and repel the foe.
Strait to the fort great Ajax turn'd his care,
And thus bespoke his brothers of the war :
Now, valiant Lycomede! exert your might,
And, brave Oïleus, prove your force in fight:
To you I trust the fortune of the field,
Till by this arm the foe shall be repell'd;
That done, expect me to complete the day-
Then, with his seven-fold shield he strode away.
With equal steps bold Teucer press'd the shore,
Whose fatal bow the strong Pandion bore.

490

At once bold Teucer draws the twanging bow,
And Ajax sends his javelin at the foe:
Fix'd in his belt the feather'd weapon stood,
And through his buckler drove the trembling wood;
But Jove was present in the dire debate,

To shield his offspring, and avert his fate.
The prince gave back, not meditating flight,
But urging vengeance, and severer fight;

430 Then, raised with hope, and fired with glory's charms,
His fainting squadrons to new fury warms.

O where, ye Lycians! is the strength you boast?
Your former fame and ancient virtue lost!
The breach lies open, but your chief in vain
Attempts alone the guarded pass to gain :
Unite, and soon that hostile fleet shall fall;
The force of powerful union conquers all.

500

This just rebuke inflamed the Lycian crew,
They join, they thicken, and the assault renew;
440 Unmoved the embodied Greeks their fury dare,
And fix'd support the weight of all the war;
Nor could the Greeks repel the Lycian powers,
Nor the bold Lycians force the Grecian towers. 510
As, on the confines of adjoining grounds,
Two stubborn swains with blows dispute their

High on the walls appear'd the Lycian powers, Like some black tempest gathering round the towers; The Greeks, oppress'd, their utmost force unite, Prepared to labour in the unequal fight;

The war renews, mix'd shouts and groans arise; Tumultuous clamour mounts, and thickens in the skies.

bounds;

They tug, they sweat; but neither gain nor yield,
One foot, one inch, of the contended field:
Thus obstinate to death they fight, they fall
Nor these can keep, nor those can win the wall.
Their manly breasts are pierced with many a wound,
450 Loud strokes are heard, and rattling arms resound;
The copious slaughter covers all the shore,
And the high ramparts drop with human gore,
As when two scales are charged with doubtful
loads,

Fierce Ajax first the advancing host invades,
And sends the brave Epicles to the shades,
Sarpedon's friend; across the warrior's way,
Rent from the walls, a rocky fragment lay;
In modern ages not the strongest swain
Could heave the unwieldy burden from the plain.
He poised, and swung it round; then, toss'd on high,
It flew with force, and labour'd up the sky;
Full on the Lycian's helmet thundering down,
The pondrous ruin crush'd his batter'd crown. 460
As skilful divers from some airy steep,
Headlong descend, and shoot into the deep
So falls Epicles; then in groans expires,
And murmuring to the shades the soul retires.
While to the ramparts daring Glaucus drew,
From Teucer's hand a winged arrow flew ;
The bearded shaft the destined passage found,
And on his naked arm inflicts a wound.

From side to side the trembling balance nods
(While some laborious matron, just and poor,
With nice exactness weighs her woolly store,)
Till, poised aloft, the resting beam suspends
Each equal weight; nor this, nor that, descends:
So stood the war, till Hector's matchless might
With fates prevailing, turn'd the scale of fight.
Fierce as a whirlwind up the wall he flies,
And fires his host with loud repeated cries:
Advance, ye Trojans! lend your valiant hands,
Haste to the fleet, and toss the blazing brands.
They hear, they run; and gathering at his call,
Raise scaling engines, and ascend the wall.

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530

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Around the works a wood of glittering spears
Shoots up, and all the rising host appears.
A ponderous stone bold Hector heaved to throw,
Pointed above, and rough and gross below:
Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise,
Such men as live in these degenerate days.
Yet this, as easy as a swain could bear
The snowy fleece, he toss'd, and shook in air:
For Jove upheld, and lighten'd of its load
The unwieldy rock, the labour of a god.
Thus arm'd before the folded gates he came,
Of massy substance, and stupendous frame;
With iron bars and brazen hinges strong,
On lofty beams of solid timber hung:
Then, thundering through the planks with forceful In Samothracia, on a mountain's brow,

Then turn'd to Thracia from the field of fight,
Those eyes that shed insufferable light,
To where the Mysians prove their martial force,
And hardy Thracians tame the savage horse;
And where the far-famed Hippemolgian strays,
Renown'd for justice and for length of days;
Thrice happy race! that, innocent of blood,
From milk, innoxious, seek their simple food;
Jove sees delighted; and avoids the scene
Of guilty Troy, of arms, and dying men:
No aid, he deems, to either host is given,

sway,

550

Drives the sharp rock; the solid beams give way,
The folds are shatter'd; from the crackling door
Leap the resounding bars, the flying hinges roar.
Now rushing in, the furious chief appears,
Gloomy as night! and shakes two shining spears:
A dreadful gleam from his bright armour came,
And from his eye-balls flash'd the living flame.
He moves a god, resistless in his course,
And seems a match for more than mortal force.
Then pouring after, through the gaping space,
A tide of Trojans flows, and fills the place;
The Greeks behold, they tremble, and they fly;
The shore is heap'd with dead, and tumult rends the
sky.

BOOK XIII.

ARGUMENT.

560

The fourth Battle continued, in which Neptune assists the Greeks: the acts of Idomeneus.

Neptune, concerned for the loss of the Grecians, upon seeing the fortification forced by Hector (who had entered the gate near the station of the Ajaxes) assumes the shape of Calchas, and inspires those heroes to oppose him: then, in the form of one of the generals, encourages the other Greeks, who had retired to their vessels. The Ajaxes form their troops in a close phalanx, and put a stop to Hector and the Trojans. Several deeds of valour are performed; Meriones loosing his spear in the encounter, repairs to seek another at

While his high law suspends the powers of heaven.
Meantime the monarch of the watery main*
Observed the Thunderer, nor observed in vain.

10

Whose waving woods o'erhung the deeps below, 20
He sate; and round him cast his azure eyes,
Where Ida's misty tops confusedly rise;
Below, fair Ilion's glittering spires were seen;
The crowded ships and sable seas between.
There, from the crystal chambers of the main
Emerged, he sate, and mourn'd his Argives slain.
At Jove incensed, with grief and fury stung,
Prone down the rocky steep he rush'd along;
Fierce as he pass'd, the lofty mountains nod,
The forest shakes: earth trembled as he trod,
And felt the footsteps of the immortal god.
From realm to realm three ample strides he took,
And, at the fourth, the distant Ægæ shook.
Far in the bay his shining palace stands,
Eternal frame! not raised by mortal hands:
This having reach'd, his brass-hoof'd steeds he reins,
Fleet as the winds, and deck'd with golden manes.
Refulgent arms his mighty limbs infold,
Immortal arms of adamant and gold.

He mounts the car, the golden scourge applies,
He sits superior, and the chariot flies:
His whirling wheels the glassy surface sweep;
The enormous monsters rolling o'er the deep,
Gambol around him on the watery way;
And heavy whales in awkward measures play:
The sea subsiding spreads a level plain,
Exults, and owns the monarch of the main;
The parting waves before his coursers fly;
The wondering waters leave his axle dry.

Deep in the liquid regions lies a cave; Between where Tenedos the surges lave, And rocky Imbrus breaks the rolling wave: the tent of Idomeneus: this occasions a conversation There the great ruler of the azure round between these two warriors, who return together to the battle. Idomeneus signalizes his courage above Stopp'd his swift chariot, and his steeds unbound, the rest; he kills Othryoneus, Asius, and Alcathous; Fed with ambrosial herbage from his hand, Deiphobus and Æneas march against him, and at And link'd their fetlocks with a golden band, length Idomeneus retires. Menelaus wounds Helenus Infrangible, immortal: there they stay, and kills Pisander. The Trojans are repulsed in the The father of the floods pursues his way, left wing; Hector still keeps his ground against the Where, like a tempest darkening heaven around, Ajaxes, till, being galled by the Locrian slingers and Or fiery deluge that devours the ground, archers, Polydamas advises to call a council of war: The impatient Trojans, in a gloomy throng, Hector approves his advice, but goes first to rally the Trojans; upbraids Paris, rejoins Polydamas, meets Embattled roll'd, as Hector rush'd along: Ajax again, and renews the attack. To the loud tumult and the barbarous cry, The heavens re-echo, and the shores reply; They vow destruction to the Grecian name, And in their hopes the fleets already flame. But Neptune, rising from the seas profound, The god whose earthquakes rock the solid ground,

The eight-and-twentieth day still continues. The scene is between the Grecian wall and the sea-shore.

BOOK XIII.

WHEN now the Thunderer on the sea-beat coast,Now wears a mortal form: like Calchas seen,

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30

40

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60

Such his loud voice, and such his manly mien ;

70

• Neptune.

i

His shouts incessant every Greek inspire,
But most the Ajaces, adding fire to fire.
'Tis yours, O warriors, all our hopes to raise;
Oh recollect your ancient worth and praise:
'Tis yours to save us, if you cease to fear;
Flight, more than shameful, is destructive here.
On other works though Troy with fury fall,
And pour her arinies o'er our batter'd wall:
There Greece has strength: but this, this part o'er-
thrown,

Her strength were vain; I dread for you alone.
Here Hector rages like the force of fire,
Vaunts of his gods, and calls high Jove his sire.
If yet some heavenly power your breast excite,
Breathe in your hearts, and string your arms to fight,
Greece yet may live, her threaten'd fleet remain;
And Hector's force, and Jove's own aid, be vain.
Then with his sceptre that the deep controuls,
He touch'd the chiefs, and steel'd their manly souls:
Strength, not their own, the touch divine imparts,
Prompts their light limbs, and swells their daring hearts.
Then as a falcon from the rocky height,
91
Her quarry seen, impetuous at the sight
Forth-springing instant, darts herself' from high.
Shoots on the wing, and skims along the sky:
Such, and so swift, the power of ocean flew;
The wide horizon shut him from their view.
The inspiring god, Oïleus' active son
Perceived the first, and thus to Telamon:

Some god, my friend, some god in human form,
Favouring descends, and wills to stand the storm.
Not Calchas this, the venerable seer;
Short as he turn'd, I saw the power appear:
I mark'd his parting, and the steps he trod;
His own bright evidence reveals a god.
E'en now some energy divine I share,
And seem to walk on wings, and tread in air!
With equal ardour (Telamon returns)
My soul is kindled, and my bosom burns:
New rising spirits all my force alarm,
Lift each impatient limb, and brace my arm.
This ready arm, unthinking, shakes the dart;
The blood pours back, and fortifies my heart:
Singly, methinks, yon towering chief I meet,
And stretch the dreadful Hector at my feet.

Heavens! what a prodigy these eyes survey,
Unseen, unthought, till this amazing day!

Fly we at length from Troy's oft-conquer'd bands?
And falls our fleet by such inglorious hands? 140
A rout undisciplined, a straggling train,
Not born to glories of the dusty plain:
Like frighted fawns, from hill to hill pursued,
A prey to every savage of the wood:

Shall these, so late who trembled at your name,
Invade your camps, involve your ships in flame?

150

80 A change so shameful, say, what cause has wrought?
The soldiers' baseness, or the general's fault?
Fools! will ye perish for your leader's vice;
The purchase infamy, and life the price?
'Tis not your cause, Achilles' injured fame:
Another's is the crime, but yours the shame.
Grant that our chief offend through rage or lust,
Must you be cowards if your king's unjust?
Prevent this evil, and your country save:
Small thought retrieves the spirits of the brave.
Think, and subdue! on dastards dead to fame
I waste no anger, for they feel no shame:
But you, the pride, the flower of all our host,
My heart weeps blood to see your glory lost!
Nor deem this day, this battle, all you lose;
A day more black, a fate more vile ensues.
Let each reflect, who prizes fame or breath,
On endless infamy, on instant death,
For lo! the fated time, the appointed shore;
Hark! the gates burst, the brazen barriers roar!
Impetuous Hector thunders at the wall;

100

The hour, the spot, to conquer or to fall.

160

170

These words the Grecians' fainting hearts inspire,
And listening armies catch the godlike fire.
Fix'd at his post was each bold Ajax found,
With well-ranged squadrons strongly circled round:
So close their order, so disposed their fight,
As Pallas' self might view with fix'd delight;
Or had the god of war inclined his eyes,
The god of war had own'd a just surprise.
110 A chosen phalanx, firm, resolved as Fate,
Descending Hector and his battle wait.
An iron scene gleams dreadful o'er the fields,
Armour in armour lock'd, and shields in shields, 180
Spears lean on spears, on targets targets throng,
Helms stuck to helms, and man drove man along.
The floating plumes unnumber'd wave above,
As when an earthquake stirs the nodding grove;
And, levell'd at the skies with pointing rays,
Their brandish'd lances at each motion blaze.

Full of the god that urged their burning breast,
The heroes thus their mutual warmth express'd.
Neptune meanwhile the routed Greeks inspired,
Who, breathless, pale, with length of labours tired,
Pant in the ships; while Troy to conquest calls,
And swarms victorious o'er their yielding walls: 120
Trembling before the impending storm they lie,
While tears of rage stand burning in their eye.
Greece sunk they thought, and this their fatal hour;
But breathe new courage as they feel the Power.
Teucer and Leitus first his words excite;
Then stern Peneleus rises to the fight;
Thoas, Deïpyrus, in arms renown'd,
And Merion next, the impulsive fury found;
Last Nestor's son the same bold ardour takes,
While thus the god the martial fire awakes:

Oh lasting infamy, oh dire disgrace
To chiefs of vigorous youth and manly race!
I trusted in the gods, and you, to see
Brave Greece victorious, and her navy free:
Ah no-the glorious combat you disclaim,
And one black day clouds all her former fame.

Thus breathing death, in terrible array,
The close-compacted legions urged their way:
Fierce they drove on, impatient to destroy;
Troy charged the first, and Hector first of Troy. 190
As from some mountain's craggy forehead torn,
A rock's round fragment flies, with fury borne,
(Which from the stubborn stone a torrent rends,)
Precipitate the ponderous mass descends;
From steep to steep the rolling ruin bounds;
At every shock the crackling wood resounds:
130 Still gathering force, it smokes; and urged amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the

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