Page:Virgil (Collins).djvu/139

Rh mouth of the Tiber. The picture of the galleys going up the stream is very beautiful:—

The sea was reddening with the dawn:

The queen of morn on high

Was seen in rosy chariot drawn

Against a saffron sky,

When on the bosom of the deep

The Zephyrs dropped at once to sleep,

And, struck with calm, the tired oars strain

Against the smooth unmoving main.

Now from the deep Æneas sees

A mighty grove of glancing trees.

Embowered amid the silvan scene

Old Tiber winds his banks between,

And in the lap of ocean pours

His gulfy stream, his sandy stores.

Around, gay birds of diverse wing,

Accustomed there to fly or sing,

Were fluttering on from spray to spray

And soothing ether with their lay.

He bids his comrades turn aside

And landward set each vessel's head,

And enters in triumphant pride

The river's shadowy bed."

War is now the subject, and Homer is the model. Yet the Roman poet never shows his individual genius more strongly than in his treatment of the external scenery amidst which his action lies. He is still the worshipper of Nature, even while he sets himself to sing of battles, as he was in his Pastorals and Georgics. Homer tells us of the rivers of the Troad, Simois and Scamander—but it is only as they affect Hector or Achilles; his heart is all the while with the