The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse. Virgil

By joy, by fear: they hungered sore hand unto hand to set;

       But doubt of dealings that might be stirred in their hearts as yet;

       So lurking, cloaked in hollow cloud they note what things betide

       Their fellows there, and on what shore the ships they manned may bide,

       And whence they come; for chosen out of all the ships they bear

       Bidding of peace, and, crying out, thus temple-ward they fare.

      But now when they were entered in, and gained the grace of speech,520

       From placid heart Ilioneus the elder 'gan beseech:

       "O Queen, to whom hath Jove here given a city new to raise,

       And with thy justice to draw rein on men of wilful ways,

       We wretched Trojans, tossed about by winds o'er every main,

       Pray thee forbid it from our ships, the dreadful fiery bane.

       Spare pious folk, and look on us with favouring kindly eyes!

       We are not come with sword to waste the Libyan families,

       Nor drive adown unto the strand the plunder of the strong:

       No such high hearts, such might of mind to vanquished folk belong.

       There is a place, Hesperia called of Greeks in days that are,530

       An ancient land, a fruitful soil, a mighty land in war.

       Œnotrian folk first tilled the land, whose sons, as rumours run,

       Now call it nought but Italy from him who led them on.

       And thitherward our course was turned,

       When sudden, stormy, tumbling seas, Orion rose on us,

       And wholly scattering us abroad with fierce blasts from the south,

       Drave us, sea-swept, by shallows blind, to straits with wayless mouth:

       But to thy shores we few have swum, and so betake us here.

       What men among men are ye then? what country's soil may bear

       Such savage ways? ye grudge us then the welcome of your sand,540

       And fall to arms, and gainsay us a tide-washed strip of strand.

       But if men-folk and wars of men ye wholly set at nought,

       Yet deem the Gods bear memory still of good and evil wrought

       Æneas was the king of us; no juster was there one,

       No better lover of the Gods, none more in battle shone:

       And if the Fates have saved that man, if earthly air he drink,

       Nor 'neath the cruel deadly shades his fallen body shrink,

       Nought need we fear, nor ye repent to strive in kindly deed

       With us: we have in Sicily fair cities to our need.

       And fields we have; Acestes high of Trojan blood is come.550

       Now suffer us our shattered ships in haven to bring home,

       To cut us timber in thy woods, and shave us oars anew.

       Then if the Italian cruise to us, if friends and king are due,

       To Italy and Latium then full merry wend we on.

       But if, dear father of our folk, hope of thy health be gone,

       And thee the Libyan water have, nor hope Iulus give,

       Then the Sicanian shores at least, and seats wherein to live,

       Whence hither came we, and the King Acestes let us seek."

      So spake he, and the others made as they the same would speak,

       The Dardan-folk with murmuring mouth.560

      But Dido, with her head hung down, in few words answer gave:

       "Let fear fall from you, Teucrian men, and set your cares aside;

       Hard fortune yet constraineth me and this my realm untried

       To hold such heed, with guard to watch my marches up and down.

       Who knoweth not Æneas' folk? who knoweth not Troy-town,

       The valour, and the men, and all the flame of such a war?

       Nay, surely nought so dull as this the souls within us are,

       Nor turns the sun from Tyrian town, so far off yoking steed.

       So whether ye Hesperia great, and Saturn's acres need,

       Or rather unto Eryx turn, and King Acestes' shore,570

       Safe, holpen will I send you forth, and speed you with my store:

       Yea and moreover, have ye will in this my land to bide.

       This city that I build is yours: here leave your ships to ride:

       Trojan and Tyrian no two wise at hands of me shall fare.

       And would indeed the King himself, Æneas, with us were,

       Driven by that self-same southern gale: but sure men will I send,

       And bid them search through Libya from end to utmost end,

       Lest, cast forth anywhere, he stray by town or forest part."

      Father Æneas thereupon high lifted up his heart,

       Nor stout Achates less, and both were fain the cloud to break;580

       And to Æneas first of all the leal Achates spake:

      "O Goddess-born, what thought hereof ariseth in thy mind?

       All safe thou seest thy ships; thy folk fair welcomed dost thou find:

       One is away, whom we ourselves saw sunken in the deep;

       But all things else the promised word thy mother gave us keep."

      Lo, even as he spake the word the cloud that wrapped them cleaves,

       And in the open space of heaven no dusk behind it leaves;

       And there Æneas stood and shone amid the daylight clear,

       With face and shoulders of a God: for loveliness of hair

       His mother breathed upon her son, and purple light of youth,590

       And joyful glory of the eyes: e'en as in very sooth

       The hand gives ivory goodliness, or when the Parian stone,

       Or silver with the handicraft of yellow gold is done:

       And therewithal unto the Queen doth he begin to speak,

       Unlooked-for of all men:

       "Lo here the very man ye seek,

       Trojan Æneas, caught away from Libyan seas of late!

       Thou, who alone of toils of Troy hast been compassionate,

       Who takest us, the leavings poor of Danaan sword, outworn

       With every hap of earth and sea, of every good forlorn,

       To city and to house of thine: to thank thee to thy worth,600

       Dido, my might may compass not; nay, scattered o'er the earth

       The Dardan folk, for what thou dost may never give thee meed:

       But if somewhere a godhead is the righteous man to heed,

       If justice is, or any soul to note the right it wrought,

       May the Gods give thee due reward. What joyful ages brought

       Thy days to birth? what mighty ones gave such an one today?

       Now while the rivers seaward run, and while the shadows stray

       O'er hollow hills, and while the pole the stars is pasturing wide,

       Still shall thine honour and thy name, still shall thy praise abide

       What land soever calleth me."610