Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/204

180 When on the naked shore, behold,

They see Misenus, dead and cold,

Destroyed by ruthless doom;

The son of Æolus, than who

None ere more skilled the trumpet blew,

To animate the warrior crew

And martial fire relume.

Once Hector's comrade, in the fray

He mingled, proud the sword to sway

Or bid the clarion sound:

When Hector 'neath the conqueror died,

He joined him to Æneas' side,

Nor worse allegiance found.

Now, as he sounds along the waves

His shell, and Heaven to conflict braves,

'Tis said that Triton heard his boast

And 'mid the billows on the coast

Sunk low his drowning head.

So all the train with cries of grief

Assailed the skies, Æneas chief:

Then, as the Sibyl bade, they ply

Their mournful task, and heap on high

With timber rising to the sky

The altar of the dead.

First to the forest they repair,

The silvan prowler's leafy lair:

The pitch-tree falls beneath the stroke;

The sharp axe rings upon the oak:

Through beechen core the wedge goes deep:

The ash comes rolling down the steep.

Æneas stirs his comrades' zeal,

And foremost wields the workman steel.

In moody silence he surveys

The boundless grove: at last he prays: