Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/75



by their leader's care each martial band

Moves into ranks, and stretches o'er the land.

With shouts the Trojans, rushing from afar,

Proclaim their motions, and provoke the war:

So when inclement winters vex the plain

With piercing frosts, or thick-descending rain,

To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly,

With noise, and order, through the mid-way sky;

To pigmy nations wounds and death they bring,

And all the war descends upon the wing.

But silent, breathing rage, resolved, and skilled

By mutual aids to fix a doubtful field,

Swift march the Greeks: the rapid dust around

Darkening arises from the laboured ground.

Thus from his flaggy wings when Notus sheds

A night of vapours round the mountain-heads,

Swift-gliding mists the dusky fields invade,

To thieves more grateful than the midnight shade;

While scarce the swains their feeding flocks survey,

Lost and confused amidst the thickened day:

So, wrapt in gathering dust, the Grecian train,

A moving cloud, swept on, and hid the plain.

Now front to front the hostile armies stand,

Eager of fight, and only wait command;