Part 41 (1/2)
Meanwhile fresh slaughter bathes the sanguine ground, Heaps fall on heaps, and heaven and earth resound
Bold Aphareus by great aeneas bled; As toward the chief he turn'd his daring head, He pierced his throat; the bending head, depress'd Beneath his helmet, nods upon his breast; His shi+eld reversed o'er the fallen warrior lies, And everlasting slumber seals his eyes
Antilochus, as Thoon turn'd him round, Transpierced his back with a dishonest wound: The hollow vein, that to the neck extends Along the chine, his eager javelin rends: Supine he falls, and to his social train Spreads his i victor, leaping where he lay, From his broad shoulders tore the spoils away; His time observed; for closed by foes around, On all sides thick the peals of ar storm sustains, But he impervious and untouch'd ree This youth, the joy of Nestor's glorious age) In arht, Faced every foe, and every danger sought; His winged lance, resistless as the wind, Obeys each motion of the master's mind!
Restless it flies, impatient to be free, And meditates the distant enemy
The son of Asius, Adaet with the brazen spear Fierce in his front: but Neptune wards the blow, And blunts the javelin of th' eluded foe: In the broad buckler half the weapon stood, Splinter'd on earth flew half the broken wood
Disarled in the Trojan crew; But Merion's spear o'ertook him as he flew, Deep in the belly's ri, andhe fell, and doubled to the ground, Lay panting Thus an ox in fetters tied, While death's strong pangs distend his labouring side, His bulk enor heart beats thick as ebbing life decays
The spear the conqueror from his body drew, And death's dim shadoarm before his view
Next brave Deipyrus in dust was laid: King Helenus waved high the Thracian blade, And s, The hel: There for some luckier Greek it rests a prize; For dark in death the Godlike owner lies!
Raging with grief, great Menelaus burns, And fraught with vengeance, to the victor turns: That shook the ponderous lance, in act to throw; And this stood adverse with the bended bow: Full on his breast the Trojan arrow fell, But harmless bounded from the plated steel
As on some ample barn's well harden'd floor, (The winds collected at each open door,) While the broad fan with force is whirl'd around, Light leaps the golden grain, resulting frouards Atrides' heart, Repell'd to distance flies the bounding dart
Atrides, watchful of the unwary foe, Pierced with his lance the hand that grasp'd the bow
And nailed it to the yew: the wounded hand Trail'd the long lance that ently fro's soft wool, snatch'd froature supplied
Behold! Pisander, urged by fate's decree, Springs through the ranks to fall, and fall by thee, Great Menelaus! to enchance thy fa in the front, the warrior came
First the sharp lance was by Atrides thrown; The lance far distant by the winds was blown
Nor pierced Pisander through Atrides' shi+eld: Pisander's spear fell shi+ver'd on the field
Not so discouraged, to the future blind, Vain dreahty htning brandish'd his far bea shi+eld: His right beneath, the cover'd pole-axe held; (An olive's cloudy grain the handle made, Distinct with studs, and brazen was the blade;) This on the hel to the plain below, Shorn froh his front the weighty falchion fell; The crashi+ng bones before its force gave way; In dust and blood the groaning hero lay: Forced froore, The clotted eye-balls tumble on the shore
And fierce Atrides spurn'd hi, said:
”Thus, Trojans, thus, at length be taught to fear; O race perfidious, who delight in war!
Already noble deeds ye have perform'd; A princess raped transcends a navy storht approve, Without th' assistance, or the fear of Jove
The violated rites, the ravish'd dahter'd and our shi+ps on flalory down, And whelreat father! lord of earth and skies, Above the thought of man, supremely wise!
If from thy hand the fates of mortals flow, From whence this favour to an impious foe?
A Godless crew, abandon'd and unjust, Still breathing rapine, violence, and lust?
The best of things, beyond theirjoy; The feast, the dance; whate'er mankind desire, Even the sweet charms of sacred nuht In thirst of slaughter, and in lust of fight”
This said, he seized (while yet the carcase heaved) The bloody ar the warring crew, And the bold son of Pylaeh Asia travell'd far, Following his h filial love he left his native shore, Never, ah, never to behold it ainst the target of the Spartan king; Thus of his lance disarm'd, from death he flies, And turns around his apprehensive eyes
Hi as he fled, The shaft of Merionpoint descends, And, driving down, the swelling bladder rends: Sunk in his sad cos sobb'd his soul away; (Like soround;) While life's red torrent gush'd froonian train In slow procession bore from off the plain
The pensive father, father now nothe shore; And unavailing tears profusely shed; And, unrevenged, deplored his offspring dead
Paris froht beheld, With pity soften'd and with fury swell'd: His honour'd host, a youth of onian race!
With his full strength he bent his angry bow, And wing'd the feather'd vengeance at the foe
A chief there was, the brave Euchenor named, For riches much, and more for virtue famed
Who held his seat in Corinth's stately town; Polydus' son, a seer of old renown
Oft had the father told his early doom, By arms abroad, or slow disease at hoal of breath, And chose the certain glorious path to death
Beneath his ear the pointed arroent; The soul ca at the narrow vent: His li darkness shades hiions yield, (Wrapp'd in the cloud and tumult of the field:) Wide on the left the force of Greece commands, And conquest hovers o'er th' Achaian bands; With such a tide superior virtue sway'd, And he that shakes the solid earth gave aid
But in the centre Hector fix'd reain'd; There, on the in of the hoary deep, (Their naval station where the Ajaces keep