Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/87

 THE TEMPEST-TOST ^ENEADE. 71

Thus tired at heart she sent the Trojan hand Hither and thither o'er the watery way; A herd of exiles driven from land to land. The doleful remnant of the Grecian fray. That swift Achilles' spear had failed to slay. On them the vengeance of the goddess came ; — Far from Italia were they doomed to stray. So much it cost to found the Roman name. Such heavy toil and strife to raise so vast a frame.

Scarce lost in distance were Sicilian land-. As full of hope the Trojans onward bore, With full-spread sail- and many laboring hands. Were plowing through the brine with brazen prore, When. I inio. harboring in her heart the sore. The lasting wound, thus to herself said she: — •• Ah! ami vanquished? And must 1 give o'er? Have 1 not power to keep from Italy That Trojan king, and am 1 barred by Fate's decree.'

Might not Minerva wrap a tleet in fire. And plunge the Grecians in the deep below, For Ajax's only crime and fury dire? Jove's leven-bolt herself presumed to throw. That rent the ships atwain in vengeance so. And all the sea turmoiled. Himself she caught Up in a whirlwind blast, while forth did flow Flames from his bosom pierced by wild-tire shock. And hurled him headlong down upon a pointed rock.

But 1 who walk in majesty above, A queen of gods who dwell in mansions bright — Ay. consort-sister e'en of supreme Jove — Must I wage war so long in cruel might With one lone race? Thenceforth will any wight With suppliant hand- gifts on my altar lay?" And saying thus, unto .Folia's height. — The r^ahn of storms. — the goddess went her way. Where winds imprisoned lie. hid from the light of day.

There, in a prison cave, king .Folus Confines each struggling wind and howling blast; They rage and bluster, and seek ever thus Through the strong bars to break from fetters fast. And make the mount resound through caverns vast : Their sceptered king sits on a rocky steep. ( ontrols their wrath, or else, swift would they cast Earth, sea and sky into confusion deep. And cany all before them with impetuous sweep.

But knowing this the sire omnipotent Did hide them deep in a dark place alone. Within a mountain in a cavern pent, And o'er them set a weighty mass of stone. And gave a keeper, who by laws well known. The rule of blustering subjects well conceives, When to confine them in the cave their own. < >r give them rein to scour the land and seas. To whom did Juno supplicate in words like these: —

•• O. .Folus ! since he, the sire of all, Has given dominion of the winds to thee. To calm the billows, or let tempests fall: — A race I hate now sails the Tyrrhene sea — Troy and her conquered gods — to Italy They bear along. O. from thy prison-keep

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