Page:Rape of Prosperine - Claudian (1854).djvu/47

 In pledge of amnesty to every soul, The calm'd Eumenides prepare the bowl, Drop their wild tresses o'er the goblet's brink, And, ere they drain it, give their serpents drink; With songs of peace their threatening fury tame, And light their torches at another flame.
 * Then birds unharm'd o'er dark Avernus flew,

No deadly vapours forth Amsanctus blew; The torrent ceased to rage, the gulph was hushed; From Acheron a milky fountain gush'd: Cocytus decked him with an ivy crown, And pour'd apace Lenean nectar down.
 * Now breaks stern Lachesis no vital thread;

No rites are marr'd by wailings for the dead: Death stalks not now on earth with footsteps dire: No parents weep around their children's pyre: The sailor sinks not in the stormy main, The soldier bleeds not on the battle plain: The cities seek for growing numbers room, In blest exemption from the stroke of doom. Old Charon rows an empty bark along, And, crown'd with reeds, relaxes in a song.
 * And now its Hesper lights the world of shade;

Now to her chamber door is led the Maid: