Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/132

108 And from the summit of the peak

The nymphs shrill out the nuptial shriek.

That day she first began to die:

That day first taught her to defy

The public tongue, the public eye.

No secret love is Dido's aim:

She calls it marriage now; such name

She chooses to conceal her shame.

Now through the towns of Libya's sons

Her progress Fame begins,

Fame than who never plague that runs

Its way more swiftly wins:

Her very motion lends her power:

She flies and waxes every hour.

At first she shrinks, and cowers for dread:

Ere long she soars on high:

Upon the ground she plants her tread,

Her forehead in the sky.

Wroth with Olympus, parent Earth

Brought forth the monster to the light,

Last daughter of the giant birth,

With feet and rapid wings for flight.

Huge, terrible, gigantic Fame!

For every plume that clothes her frame

An eye beneath the feather peeps,

A tongue rings loud, an ear upleaps.

Hurtling 'twixt earth and heaven she flies

By night, nor bows to sleep her eyes:

Perched on a roof or tower by day

She fills great cities with dismay;

How oft soe'er the truth she tell,

She loves a falsehood all too well.

Such now from town to town she flew

With rumours mixed of false and true: