Classic Poem

Attentively he heard us, while we spoke;
Then, with soft Accents, and a pleasing Look,
Made this return. Ausonian Race, of old
Renown'd for Peace, and for an Age of Gold,
What Madness has your alter'd Minds possess'd,
To change for War hereditary Rest?
Sollicite Arms unknown, and tempt the Sword,
(A needless Ill your Ancestors abhorr'd?)
We (for my self I speak, and all the Name
Of Grecians, who to Troy's Destruction came;)
Omitting those who were in Battel slain,
Or born by rowling Simois to the Main:
Not one but suffer'd, and too dearly bought
The Prize of Honour which in Arms he sought.
Some doom'd to Death, and some in Exile driv'n,
Out-casts, abandon'd by the Care of Heav'n:
So worn, so wretched, so dispis'd a Crew,
As ev'n old Priam might with Pity view.
Witness the Vessels by Minerva toss'd
In Storms, the vengeful Capharaean Coast;
Th' Eubaean Rocks! The Prince, whose Brother led
Our Armies to revenge his injur'd Bed,
In Egypt lost; Ulysses, with his Men,
Have seen Charybdis, and the Cyclops Den:
Why shou'd I name Idomeneus, in vain
Restor'd to Scepters, and expell'd again?
Or young Achilles by his Rival slain?
Ev'n he, the King of Men, the foremost Name
Of all the Greeks, and most renown'd by Fame,
The proud Revenger of another's Wife,
Yet by his own Adult'ress lost his Life:
Fell at his Threshold, and the Spoils of Troy,
The foul Polluters of his Bed enjoy.
The Gods have envy'd me the sweets of Life,
My much lov'd Country, and my more lov'd Wife:
Banish'd from both, I mourn; while in the Sky
Transform'd to Birds, my lost Companions fly:
Hov'ring about the Coasts they make their Moan;
And cuff the cliffs with Pinions not their own.