plena sub haec irae uoces dedit umbra minaces :
'Perfidus ergo ille es qui foedera primus Olympi
ausus es inruptamque prius confundere pacem,
quo duce coniurata minis ac marte rebelli
tertia pars superum summi Iouis arma lacessit?
pro quibus hic inuisa deis uestra exulat aetas,
damnati misero per saecula longa dolori,

tene etiam superis, Erebo deuote, cateruis, adnumeras, spargisque minas flatusque superbos hic quoque, nostra ubi regna et, plus tua quo furat ira, ius datur imperiumque tui? quin perfide retro in poenam is fugitiue fugaeque adcingeris alas, ne tibi forte moras castigem instemque flagellis uipereis, nostri aut uno te uolnere teli

percutiat nouus horror inexpertique dolores.'

20

SIC ait ore minans; sed nec cura ulla minarum
Encelado, contraque iris ardentior infit.
'Capto, claustrorum qui iactas munera, capto
uincla crepa; prius at multo grauiora reuictum
spera te nostrae sensurum pondera dextrae,
regem ipsum superum quamuis tua uexerit ala
tuque tuique simul passi iuga nota trahatis

per cliuum aetherium substrata per astra triumphos.
at superum haec fanti nitidum rubor igneus agmen
mutat, et extenuans lunata cornua fronte
paulatim elatis hinc atque hinc circuit hastis.

non tam densa Ceres messi matura per agros

Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind
Sways them; the careful ploughman doubting stands,
Lest on the threshing-floor his hopeful sheaves
Prove chaff. On the other side, Satan, alarm'd,
Collecting all his might, dilated stood,

Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved :

His stature reached the sky, and on his crest
Sat horror plumed, nor wanted in his grasp
What seemed both spear and shield.

21

WILLIAM BLAKE

O SONS of Trojan Brutus, clothed in war,
Whose voices are the thunder of the field,
Rolling dark clouds o'er France, muffling the sun
In sickly darkness like a dim eclipse,

Threatening as the red brow of storms, as fire
Burning up nations in your wrath and fury!
Your ancestors came from the fires of Troy,
(Like lions roused by lightning from their dens,
Whose eyes do glare against the stormy fires),
Heated with war, filled with the blood of Greeks,
With helmets hewn, and shields covered with gore,
In navies black, broken with wind and tide:
They landed in firm array upon the rocks

Of Albion; they kissed the rocky shore;

'Be thou our mother and our nurse,' they said;

'Our children's mother, and thou shalt be our grave,

The sepulchre of ancient Troy, from whence

Shall rise cities, and thrones, and arms, and awful

powers.'

fluctuat incerta quo flectunt flamina silua,
hirta comis; haeret curis suspensus arator,
ne sibi culmorum spes area prodat inanis.
at contra trepidi et collecto robore uasti
Enceladi adsurgens et nota maior imago,
qualis Atlas uel quale Aetnes immobile saxum
uertice tangebat caelum: formidinis alis

horret apex: hastae et clipei uibrat manus umbram.

21

TROIVGENAE Bruti suboles indutaque martem
pectora, quis campo, aeratis legionibus horror,
uox tonat, et Gallis uoluentes nubila terris
obscura sol ipse fugit ferrugine languens,
frons atrae quis rubra hiemis leuiora minatur,
quorum exest late populos, ut flammeus ardor,
ira furens: uestros Troianus sedibus ignis
mouit auos, qualis antro exciuere leones
fulmina, fulmineis accensos lumina flammis.
bello illi ardentes, impleti sanguine Graium,
abscisi cristas, ingesto in scuta cruore,

classibus huc atris, quas fregerat aestus et auster, adpellunt, scopulosque acie tenuere Britannos egressi firma, et durae dant oscula terrae,

'Tu nutrix, tu mater eris,' sic ore locuti,

' nobis tu genetrix natorum, eademque sepulcrum, Ilion antiquam quae condes, unde resurgant urbesque regesque atque arma horrendaque uirtus.'

22

23*

T. G. HAKE, Ortrud's Vision

UPON the battle's fevered eve

I lay within my tent and slept :
Strange visions did my spirit grieve
And wings and voices round me swept.
'Osric, this fight is not for thee:

The good, the faithful follow me.'

*

I started up, I called my squires :
We rode away with echoing tramp
Where through the night shone ruddy fires
From out the holy Christian camp.
We passed within the sacred bourn,
Our mail aflame with lights of morn.
Scarce the sky broke when heathen foes
Came down the distant hills and seemed
To pour from night; they still arose ;
On all the plain their armour gleamed.
Then swept o'er all a rushing blight
And they were hidden from our sight.

H. H. MILMAN

EVEN as a flower,

Poppy or hyacinth, on its broken stem,
Languidly raises its encumbered head,
And turns it to the gentle evening sun,
So feebly rose, so turned that boy his face
Unto the well-known voice: twice raised his head,
Twice it fell back in powerless heaviness;

Even at that moment from the dark wood came

His chariot coursers, heavily behind

Dragging the vacant car. Caswallon knew

And he leaped up; the boy his bloodless lips

22

FESSO Suspensos intra tentoria somnos

crastina pugna dabat; mira aegram insomnia mentem sollicitant sonitu uocum alarumque tremore,

perque auris uox uisa rapi 'Non haec tibi, Theseu, pugna datur: mea signa pii sanctique secuntur.' exilui stratis, sociam ad noua iussa cateruam uoce uoco, resonosque procul tulit ungula cursus, per tenebras qua Graia pio castra igne rubebant: inuectis uallo tela incendebat Eous.

uix caelum redit et colles procul inpius hostis descendit serie, ceu nox effunderet arma, innumera, totumque aequor tenuere corusci. dein ruit atra lues prospectumque abstulit omnem.

23

QVALES narcissi laesoue papauera collo uertice se tollunt aegro solemque requirunt uespere iam mollem, talem puer artubus aegris se leuat, ad notas et flectit lumina uoces; bis caput attollit contra, bis languida rursus reccidit in colla inualidum. tum denique currum, rectore illum orbum, multa cum mole trahentes, egrediuntur equi nemoris caligine. sensit exsiluitque pater. labra ille exsanguia contra