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
Such tale she told, and therewith led to house full kingly made
Æneas, bidding therewithal the Gods with gifts to grace;
Nor yet their fellows she forgat upon the sea-beat place,
But sendeth them a twenty bulls, an hundred bristling backs
Of swine, an hundred fatted lambs, whereof his ewe none lacks,
And gifts and gladness of the God.
Meanwhile the gleaming house within with kingly pomp is dight,
And in the midmost of the hall a banquet they prepare:
Cloths laboured o'er with handicraft, and purple proud is there;
Great is the silver on the board, and carven out of gold 640
The mighty deeds of father-folk, a long-drawn tale, is told,
Brought down through many and many an one from when their race began.
Æneas, through whose father's heart unquiet love there ran,
Sent on the swift Achates now unto the ships to speed,
To bear Ascanius all these haps, and townward him to lead;
For on Ascanius well beloved was all his father's thought:
And therewithal gifts good to give from Ilium's ruin caught
He bade him bring: a cope all stiff with golden imagery;
With saffron soft acanthus twine a veil made fair to see;
The Argive Helen's braveries, brought from Mycenæ erst, 650
When she was seeking Pergamos and wedding all accursed:
Her mother Leda gave her these and marvellous they were.
A sceptre too that Ilione in days agone did bear,
The eldest-born of Priam's maids; a neckchain pearl bestrown,
And, doubly wrought with gold and gems, a kingly-fashioned crown.
So to the ships Achates went these matters forth to speed.
But Cytherea in her heart turned over new-wrought rede,
New craft; how, face and fashion changed, her son the very Love
For sweet Ascanius should come forth, and, gift-giving, should move
The Queen to madness, make her bones the yoke-fellows of flame. 660
Forsooth the doubtful house she dreads, the two-tongued Tyrian name;
And bitter Juno burneth her, and care the night doth wake:
Now therefore to the winged Love such words as this she spake:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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