The Aeneid | Page 4

and disclose the deep.?South, East, and West with mix'd confusion roar,?And roll the foaming billows to the shore.?The cables crack; the sailors' fearful cries?Ascend; and sable night involves the skies;?And heav'n itself is ravish'd from their eyes.?Loud peals of thunder from the poles ensue;?Then flashing fires the transient light renew;?The face of things a frightful image bears,?And present death in various forms appears.?Struck with unusual fright, the Trojan chief,?With lifted hands and eyes, invokes relief;?And, "Thrice and four times happy those," he cried,?"That under Ilian walls before their parents died!?Tydides, bravest of the Grecian train!?Why could not I by that strong arm be slain,?And lie by noble Hector on the plain,?Or great Sarpedon, in those bloody fields?Where Simois rolls the bodies and the shields?Of heroes, whose dismember'd hands yet bear?The dart aloft, and clench the pointed spear!"
Thus while the pious prince his fate bewails,?Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails,?And rent the sheets; the raging billows rise,?And mount the tossing vessels to the skies:?Nor can the shiv'ring oars sustain the blow;?The galley gives her side, and turns her prow;?While those astern, descending down the steep,?Thro' gaping waves behold the boiling deep.?Three ships were hurried by the southern blast,?And on the secret shelves with fury cast.?Those hidden rocks th' Ausonian sailors knew:?They call'd them Altars, when they rose in view,?And show'd their spacious backs above the flood.?Three more fierce Eurus, in his angry mood,?Dash'd on the shallows of the moving sand,?And in mid ocean left them moor'd aland.?Orontes' bark, that bore the Lycian crew,?(A horrid sight!) ev'n in the hero's view,?From stem to stern by waves was overborne:?The trembling pilot, from his rudder torn,?Was headlong hurl'd; thrice round the ship was toss'd,?Then bulg'd at once, and in the deep was lost;?And here and there above the waves were seen?Arms, pictures, precious goods, and floating men.?The stoutest vessel to the storm gave way,?And suck'd thro' loosen'd planks the rushing sea.?Ilioneus was her chief: Alethes old,?Achates faithful, Abas young and bold,?Endur'd not less; their ships, with gaping seams,?Admit the deluge of the briny streams.
Meantime imperial Neptune heard the sound?Of raging billows breaking on the ground.?Displeas'd, and fearing for his wat'ry reign,?He rear'd his awful head above the main,?Serene in majesty; then roll'd his eyes?Around the space of earth, and seas, and skies.?He saw the Trojan fleet dispers'd, distress'd,?By stormy winds and wintry heav'n oppress'd.?Full well the god his sister's envy knew,?And what her aims and what her arts pursue.?He summon'd Eurus and the western blast,?And first an angry glance on both he cast;?Then thus rebuk'd: "Audacious winds! from whence?This bold attempt, this rebel insolence??Is it for you to ravage seas and land,?Unauthoriz'd by my supreme command??To raise such mountains on the troubled main??Whom I- but first 't is fit the billows to restrain;?And then you shall be taught obedience to my reign.?Hence! to your lord my royal mandate bearThe?realms of ocean and the fields of air?Are mine, not his. By fatal lot to me?The liquid empire fell, and trident of the sea.?His pow'r to hollow caverns is confin'd:?There let him reign, the jailer of the wind,?With hoarse commands his breathing subjects call,?And boast and bluster in his empty hall."?He spoke; and, while he spoke, he smooth'd the sea,?Dispell'd the darkness, and restor'd the day.?Cymothoe, Triton, and the sea-green train?Of beauteous nymphs, the daughters of the main,?Clear from the rocks the vessels with their hands:?The god himself with ready trident stands,?And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands;?Then heaves them off the shoals. Where'er he guides?His finny coursers and in triumph rides,?The waves unruffle and the sea subsides.?As, when in tumults rise th' ignoble crowd,?Mad are their motions, and their tongues are loud;?And stones and brands in rattling volleys fly,?And all the rustic arms that fury can supply:?If then some grave and pious man appear,?They hush their noise, and lend a list'ning ear;?He soothes with sober words their angry mood,?And quenches their innate desire of blood:?So, when the Father of the Flood appears,?And o'er the seas his sov'reign trident rears,?Their fury falls: he skims the liquid plains,?High on his chariot, and, with loosen'd reins,?Majestic moves along, and awful peace maintains.?The weary Trojans ply their shatter'd oars?To nearest land, and make the Libyan shores.
Within a long recess there lies a bay:?An island shades it from the rolling sea,?And forms a port secure for ships to ride;?Broke by the jutting land, on either side,?In double streams the briny waters glide.?Betwixt two rows of rocks a sylvan scene?Appears above, and groves for ever green:?A grot is form'd beneath, with mossy seats,?To rest the Nereids, and exclude the heats.?Down thro' the crannies of the living walls?The crystal streams descend in murm'ring falls:?No haulsers need to bind the vessels here,?Nor bearded anchors; for no storms they fear.?Sev'n ships within this happy harbor meet,?The thin remainders of the scatter'd