The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English VerseVirgil
General
The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse
Virgil
Aeneas (Legendary character) -- Poetry; Epic poetry, Latin -- Translations into English
But at such word Alecto's wrath in utter fire outbrake;
A tremor ran throughout his limbs e'en as the word he spake;
Fixed stared his eyes, the Fury hissed with Serpent-world so dread,
And such a mighty body woke: then rolling in her head
Her eyes of flame, she thrust him back, stammering and seeking speech,
As on her head she reared aloft two adders each by each, 450
And sounded all her fearful whip, and cried from raving mouth:
"Lo, I am she, the mouldy-dull, whom Eld, the void of sooth,
Bemocks amid the arms of kings with empty lies of fear!
Look, look! for from the Sisters' House, the Dread Ones, come I here;
And war and death I have in hand."
She spake, and on the youth she cast her torch and set its blaze,
A mirky gleam of smoke-wreathed flame, amidmost of his heart:
And mighty dread his slumber brake, and forth from every part,
From bones and body, burst the sweat, and o'er his limbs 'gan fall;
And wild he cries for arms, and seeks for arms from bed and wall: 460
The sword-lust rageth in his soul, and wicked thirst of war.
So was it as at whiles it is, when with a mighty roar
The twiggen flame goes up about the hollow side of brass;
The water leapeth up therewith, within comes rage to pass,
The while the cloudy foaming flood spouts up a bubbling stir,
Until the sea refrains no more; the black cloud flies in air.
So to the dukes of men he shows how peace hath evil end,
And on Latinus biddeth them in weed of war to wend;
That they may save their Italy, and thrust the foemen forth.
And he will fare unto the field more than the twain of worth, 470
Teucrians and Latins: so he saith, and calls the Gods to aid.
Then eagerly Rutulian men to war and battle bade:
For some his glorious beauty stirred, and some his youth drave on,
And some his sires; and some were moved by deeds his hand had done.
But while he fills Rutulian souls with love for glorious things,
Alecto to the Teucrians wends on Stygian-fashioned wings,
With fresh guile spying out the place where goodly on the shore,
With toils and speed 'gainst woodland beasts, Iulus waged the war.
Here for his hounds Cocytus' Maid a sudden madness blent,
Crossing the nostrils of the beasts with long familiar scent, 480
As eagerly they chased a hart. This first began the toil,
And kindled field-abiders' souls to war and deadly broil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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