Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/29

Rh Then lighting heavily on the main,

East, South, and West with storms in train,

Heave from its depth the watery floor,

And roll great billows to the shore.

Then come the clamour and the shriek,

The sailors shout, the main-ropes creak:

All in a moment sun and skies

Are blotted from the Trojans' eyes:

Black night is brooding o'er the deep,

Sharp thunder peals, live lightnings leap:

The stoutest warrior holds his breath,

And looks as on the face of death.

At once Æneas thrilled with dread;

Forth from his breast, with hands outspread,

These groaning words he drew:

'O happy, thrice and yet again,

Who died at Troy like valiant men,

E'en in their parents' view!

O Diomed, first of Greeks in fray,

Why pressed I not the plain that day,

Yielding my life to you,

Where stretched beneath a Phrygian sky

Fierce Hector, tall Sarpedon lie:

Where Simois tumbles 'neath his wave

Shields, helms, and bodies of the brave?'

Now, howling from the north, the gale,

While thus he moans him, strikes his sail:

The swelling surges climb the sky;

The shattered oars in splinters fly;

The prow turns round, and to the tide

Lays broad and bare the vessel's side;

On comes a billow, mountain-steep,

Bears down, and tumbles in a heap.

These stagger on the billow's crest;

Those to the yawning depth deprest