Iberia Won; A poem descriptive of the Peninsular War: With impressions from recent visits to the battle-grounds, and copious historical and illustrative notesHughes, T. M. (Terence McMahon)
History
Iberia Won; A poem descriptive of the Peninsular War: With impressions from recent visits to the battle-grounds, and copious historical and illustrative notes
Hughes, T. M. (Terence McMahon)
Peninsular War, 1807-1814 -- Poetry
XXXIII. “Through fiery scourge so San Sebastian past,” &c.
Πόλις δ’ ὁμοῦ μὲν θυμιαμάτων γέμει,
Ὁμοῦ δὲ παιάνων τε καὶ στεναγμάτων.
Soph. _Œdip._ Tyr. 4.
Πόλις γὰρ, ὥσπερ καὐτὸς εἰσορᾷς, ἄγαν
Ἤδη σαλεύει, κᾴνακουφίσαι κάρα
Βυθῶν ἔτ’ οὐχ οἵα τε φοινίου σάλου.
_Ib._ 22.
“The whole city smokes, and is full of mournful pæans and
lamentations. * * As thou thyself dost witness, the city is shaken
with a mighty grief, nor can raise its head from the depths of the
gory sea.”
“Till all was smouldering heaps of desolation, wo.”
Gern möcht’ er in tempeln beten,
Nur trümmer findet er mehr!
Altar’ und Götter liegen
Zerstückelt am boden umher.
Anastasius Grün (Von Auersperg).
“Willingly would he pray in temples, but he finds only ruins.
Altars and Gods lie shattered upon the earth around!”
XXXIX. “Thy soul shall covet but of Locrian power
And intellect the glory! Beaconing men
To happiness be thine--still Freedom’s tower,
Still making every scowling Despot cower!”
Νέμει γὰρ Ἀτρέκεια πόλιν Λοκρῶν
Ζεφυρίων: μέλει τέ σφισι Καλλιόπα,
Καὶ χάλκεος Ἄρης.
Pind. _Olymp._ x.
“For Truth doth govern in the Zephyrian Locri’s city, and Calliope
is their care, and likewise brazen Mars.” A magnificent eulogy is
conveyed here in a few words. Ἀτρέκεια in the original has the
force both of Truth and Justice. No people of antiquity were more
renowned for the excellence of their institutions than the Locri,
who were the first to make use of written laws. (Strabo, _lib._ 6.)
Calliope is used by synecdoche for the Muses, to whom the Locri
were greatly devoted, having invented the Locric harmony which was
subsequently imitated by Sappho and Anacreon. (Athenæus, _lib._
xiv. et xv.) Their warlike character upon fitting occasions was
also terribly displayed, 10,000 Locri having put to flight 130,000
invading Crotonians on the banks of the river Sagra--a fact which,
at first doubted as impossible, was afterwards strictly verified,
and passed into a proverb. (Strabo, _lib._ 6.) The epithet “brazen”
applied here to Mars arises from the singular fact that iron did
not enter into the composition of the Grecian arms, which were all
of brass. (Pausanias, _in Laconicis_, and Homer _passim_.) The
magnificent region of Locris was situated at the foot of Parnassus;
and the splendid pre-eminence of its inhabitants in arts and arms,
with their prodigious victory over the Crotonians, appears to
justify their comparison with England.
XLII. “Her soul was all absorbed in his--her life
Was cast, since meeting, in another mould.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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