Classic Poem

Now gay Aurora from Tithonus' bed
Rose in the orient, to proclaim the day
To gods and men. Down to the Grecian tents
Saturnian Jove sends Discord, red with blood;
War in her hand she grasps, ensigns of war.
On brave Ulysses' ship she took her stand,
The centre of the host, that all might hear
Her dreadful voice. Her dreadful voice she rais'd;
Jarring along the rattling shores it ran
To the fleet's wide extremes; Achilles heard,
And Ajax heard, the found. With martial fires
Now ev'ry bosom burns; arms, glorious arms,
Fierce they demand. The noble Orthian song
Swells ev'ry heart: no coward thoughts of flight
Rise in their souls, but blood they breathe and war.
Now by the trench profound, the charioteers
Range their proud steeds; now car by car displays
A direful front; now o'er the trembling field
Rushes th' embattled foot: noise rends the skies,
Noise unextinguish'd. Ere the beamy day
Flam'd in th' aerial vault, stretch'd in the van
Stood the bold infantry: the rushing cars
Form'd the deep rear in battailous array.
Now from his heav'ns Jove hurls his burning bolts,
Hoarse mutt'ring thunders grumble in the sky,
While from the clouds, instead of morning dews,
Huge drops of blood distain the crimson ground;
Fatal presage, that in that dreadful day
The great should bleed, imperial heads lie low!
Meantime the bands of Troy in proud array
Stand to their arms, and from a rising ground
Breathe furious war. Here gathering hosts attend
The tow'ring Hector; there refulgent bands
Surround Polydamas; Æneas there
Marshals his dauntless files; nor unemploy'd
Stand Polybus, Agenor great in arms,
And Acamas, whose frame the gods endow'd
With more than mortal charms. Fierce in the van
Stern Hector shines, and shakes his blazing shield,
As the fierce dog-star with malignant fires
Flames in the front of heaven, then lost in clouds
Veils his pernicious beams, from rank to rank
So Hector strode. Now dreadful in the van
Advanc'd his sun-broad shield; now to the rear
Swift rushing disappear'd: his radiant arms
Blaz'd on his limbs, and, bright as Jove's dire bolts,
Flash'd o'er the field, and lighten'd to the skies.
As toiling reapers, in some spacious field,
Rang'd in two bands, move adverse, rank on rank,
Where o'er the tilth the grain in ears of gold
Waves nodding to the breeze, at once they bend,
At once the copious harvest swells the ground;
So rush to battle o'er the dreadful field
Host against host. They meet, they close, and ranks
Tumble on ranks. No thoughts appear of flight,
None of dismay. Dubious in even scales
The battle hangs: not fiercer ravenous wolves
Dispute the prey. The deathful scene with joy
Discord, dire parent of tremendous woes!
Surveys exultant. Of th' immortal train
Discord alone descends, assists alone
The horrors of the field. In peace the gods
High in Olympian bowers on radiant thrones
Lament the woes of man; but loud complaints
From ev'ry god arose: Jove favour'd Troy;
At partial Jove they murmur'd: he, unmov'd,
All heaven in murmurs heard: apart he sat
Enthron'd in glory. Down to earth he turn'd
His stedfast eye, and from his throne survey'd
The rising tow'rs of Troy, the tented shores,
The blaze of arms, the slayer and the slain.
While with his morning wheels the god of day
Climb'd up the steep of heaven, with equal rage
In murd'rous storms the shafts from host to host
Flew adverse, and in equal numbers fell
Promiscuous Greek and Trojan, till the hour
When the tir'd woodman in the shady vale
Spreads his penurious meal, when high the sun
Flames in the zenith, and his sinewy arms
Scarce wield the pond'rous ax, while hunger keen
Admonishes, and nature spent with toil
Craves due repast — then Greece the ranks of Troy
With horrid inroad goar'd. Fierce from the van
Sprung the stern king of men, and breathing death,
Where in firm battle Trojans band by band
Embody'd stood, pursu'd his dreadful way:
His host his step attends. Now glows the war;
Horse treads on horse, and man encount'ring man,
Swells the dire field with death. The plunging steeds
Beat the firm glebes; thick dust in rising clouds
Darkens the sky; indignant o'er the plain
Atrides stalks; death ev'ry step attends.
As when in some huge forest sudden flames
Rage dreadful, when rough winds assist the blaze,
From tree to tree the fiery torrent rolls,
And the vast soiest sinks with all its groves
Beneath the burning deluge; so whole hosts
Yield to Atrides' arm: car against car
Rush rattling o'er the field, and thro' the ranks
Unguided broke, while breathless on the ground
Lay the pale charioteers, in death deform'd
To their chaste brides sad spectacles of woe,
Now only grateful to the fowls of air.
Meantime, the care of Jove, great Hector stood
Secure in scenes of death, in storms of darts,
In slaughter and alarms, in dust and blood.
Still Agamemnon rushing o'er the field
Leads his bold bands; whole hosts before him fly:
Now Illus' tomb they pass, now urge their way
Close by the fig-tree shade: with shouts the king
Pursues the foe incessant: dust and blood,
Blood mix'd with dust, disdains his murd'rous hands.
As when a lion, in the gloom of night,
Invades an herd of beeves, o'er all the plains
Trembling they scatter, furious on the prey
The gen'rous savage flies, and with fierce joy
Seizes the last, his hungry foaming jaws
Churn the black blood, and rend the panting prey:
Thus fled the foe, Atrides thus pursu'd,
And still the hindmost slew. They from their cars
Fell headlong, for his javelin, wild for blood,
Rag'd terribly. And now proud Troy had fall'n;
But the dread fire of men and gods descends
Terrific from his heav'ns! His vengeful hand
Ten thousand thunders grasps. On Ida's heights
He takes his stand; it shakes with all its groves
Beneath the god: the god suspends the war.