Classic Poem

As when devouring flames some forest seize
On the high mountains, splendid from afar
The blaze appears, so, moving on the plain,
The steel-clad host innum'rous flash'd to Heav'n.
And as a multitude of fowls in flocks
Assembled various, geese, or cranes, or swans
Lithe-neck'd, long hov'ring o'er Caÿster's banks
On wanton plumes, successive on the mead
Alight at last, and with a clang so loud,
That all the hollow vale of Asius rings,
In number such from ships and tents effus'd,
They cover'd the Scamandrian plain; the earth
Rebellow'd to the feet of steeds and men.
They overspread Scamander's grassy vale,
Myriads, as leaves, or as the flow'rs of spring.
As in the hovel where the peasant milks
His kine in spring-time, when his pails are fill'd,
Thick clouds of humming insects on the wing
Swarm all around him, so the Greecians swarm'd
An unsumm'd multitude o'er all the plain,
Bright-arm'd, high-crested, and athirst for war.