Classic Poem

THE BURNING OF THE SHIPS .

Fortune here grew fickle, to each fair promise untrue.
While at the tomb they pay him the funeral honours as due,
Lo! to the Ilian vessels Saturnian Juno sent
Forth from the skies bright Iris, and breathed fair winds as she went.
Deep her mighty designs, and her ancient wrath unallayed.
So on a rainbow formed of a thousand colours, the maid,
Viewless to mortal eyes, ran down heaven's slope in the breeze.
Over the vast assembly her glances wander; she sees
Shores and deserted harbours; the vessels lying unmanned:
While withdrawn from the rest, Troy's dames on a desolate strand
Wept for the lost Anchises, and, as they wept him, the band
Gazed on the deep great sea. " Still many a water, alas!
Many a billowy reach for a toil-worn people to pass! "
One cry fills each bosom, on each lip rises the prayer:
" O for a city! The toils of the wave are weary to bear! "

Straight to the heart of the throng as a spirit of evil she flew,
Laid her immortal raiment by and her heavenly face,
Beroe, aged wife of the Thracian Doryclus, grew,
Mother of children once, with a name and a glorious race.
Thus in the midst of the Trojan dames stood Iris to view.
" Ah! sad sisters, " she cries, " why might not a Danaan foe
Trail us to die beneath Ilion's walls? Ah! people of woe,
What fierce ruin awaits thee at Fortune's merciless hands?
Seven long summers already are closing, since in the war
Ilion fell, and we wander, alas! o'er waters and lands.
Wild sea-rocks we encounter, and measure many a star,
Seeking on ocean's wastes for an Italy, which as we come
Vanishes ever, and always tost on the tumbling foam.
Here are the brotherly kingdoms of Eryx, Acestes' halls;
May we not here plant homes, give here to a nation her walls?
Land of my fathers! Penates from foemen rescued in vain!
Shall Troy call by her name no citadel ever again?
May it not ever be mine on a Hector's rivers to look,
Gaze on another Xanthus, another Simois brook?
Come, let us harry with fire the accursed ships. As I dreamed,
Lo! in a vision the shade of the seer Cassandra, meseemed,
Gave me the lighted torches: " The Troy ye are seeking is here;
Here," she exclaimed, " your home." 'T is the hour already to strike.
Portents of heaven brook little delay. Four altars are near
Kindled to Neptune. Torches and will God gives us alike. "
Leading the way as she spake, she uplifted a terrible brand,
Swung it around and above her, with main might heaving her hand,
Wheeled it in flames and flung it. The hearts of the women of Troy
Throbbed as they saw, spell-bound they stand with a furious joy.
One theron of the number, a soul well stricken in years,
Pyrgo, nurse of the children of Priam, cries to her peers:
" Mothers of Troy! no Beroe this, no consort of thine —
Doryclus — here; mark well yon tokens of beauty divine:
Note those burning glances; the breath that around her is shed;
Heavenly look, and immortal tones, and a goddess's tread.
'T is but an hour since yonder I left, myself, as I came,
Beroe sick and repining, because, disconsolate dame,
She of her sisters alone must lay no gift on the grave,
Naught to Anchises bring of the honours due to the brave. "

Doubtful at first Troy's matrons. With evil eyes they survey
Ilion's ships, each wavering spirit balanced between
Craven desire of the land, and a realm that calls them away;
When, on her pinions soaring, celestial Iris was seen
Cleaving in rainbow-light an enormous are to the clouds.
Scared by the portent now, in bewildered frenzy, the crowds
Shout in accord; pluck faggot and firetorch forth from the fire;
Strip each altar, and fling boughs, branches, and brands, from the shrine,
Piled in disorder. The God of the flames gives reins to his ire;
Riots on bench, and on oar, and on rosined timbers of pine.

Swift to the funeral tomb, and the people ranged for the show,
News of the fleet upon fire Eumelus carries, and, lo!
Yonder behind them the cinders in dark clouds floating they see.
Forth Ascanius bounds to the front; as he lately in glee
Led his battalion, so to the camp in danger his horse
Hotly he spurs, and his panting guards check vainly his course.
" What strange madness, " he thunders, " and what wild thing do ye seek,
Ill-starred dames? No enemy this, no tents of the Greek
These that ye burn. Your own bright hopes in the fire ye destroy.
Lo, it is I, 't is the Ascan ye know! " And his helmet the boy
Flung dislodged from his temples before their feet as he spake —
Helmet employed so lately in sport, war's image to wake.
Soon Æneas in haste draws near with the Teucrian host.
Troy's dames, hither and thither in panic over the coast
Scattering, steal to the forests and deep cave hollows away;
Loathing the deed that is done, and abhorring the light of the day.
Sobered they know their friends, and the Juno madness is spent.
Not that unvanquished flames so soon their fury relent, —
Under the wetted timbers the tow still smoulders and glows,
Vomiting thick pent smoke; heat, gathering strength as it goes,
Feeds on the keels; fierce fire spreads downward and ranges below;
Neither can stalwart hero, nor waters, master the foe.

Then from his shoulders his raiment the chieftain rending in prayer
Calls on the Gods for succour; uplifts clasped hands to the air:
" Jove Almighty! if yet one Trojan remain of the race
Whom thine hatred assails not, if still thy pitying face
Looks upon human sorrows, preserve our vessels from fire;
Save Troy's feeble nation from perishing, Heavenly Sire!
Else, if death we deserve, with thine awful thunders to death
Hurl this remnant weak, and thyself o'erwhelm us, " he saith.
Scarce has the prayer been breathed, when a tempest dark as the night
Breaks in a streaming shower. Earth trembles on plain and on height,
Shaken with thunder. From uttermost heaven fall rivers of rain,
Murky, and black with storms from the southward sweeping in train.
Every vessel is drowned in the downpour; timbers in part
Charred and consumed by the fire at length are soaked to the heart.
Soon all fiery vapour is quencht, and the vessels of Troy —
Four of the number missing — are saved from flames that destroy.