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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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And who shall be the lord, to rule the lusty year: With rage of love the jealous rivals burn, And push for push, and wound for wound return; Their dewlaps gor'd, their sides are lav'd in blood; Loud cries and roaring sounds rebellow thro' the wood: Such was the combat in the listed ground; So clash their swords, and so their shields resound. Jove sets the beam; in either scale he lays The champions' fate, and each exactly weighs. On this side, life and lucky chance ascends; Loaded with death, that other scale descends. Rais'd on the stretch, young Turnus aims a blow Full on the helm of his unguarded foe: Shrill shouts and clamors ring on either side, As hopes and fears their panting hearts divide. But all in pieces flies the traitor sword, And, in the middle stroke, deserts his lord. Now is but death, or flight; disarm'd he flies, When in his hand an unknown hilt he spies. Fame says that Turnus, when his steeds he join'd, Hurrying to war, disorder'd in his mind, Snatch'd the first weapon which his haste could find. 'T was not the fated sword his father bore, But that his charioteer Metiscus wore. This, while the Trojans fled, the toughness held; But, vain against the great Vulcanian shield, The mortal-temper'd steel deceiv'd his hand: The shiver'd fragments shone amid the sand. Surpris'd with fear, he fled along the field, And now forthright, and now in orbits wheel'd; For here the Trojan troops the list surround, And there the pass is clos'd with pools and marshy ground. Aeneas hastens, tho' with heavier pace- His wound, so newly knit, retards the chase, And oft his trembling knees their aid refuse- Yet, pressing foot by foot, his foe pursues. Thus, when a fearful stag is clos'd around With crimson toils, or in a river found, High on the bank the deep-mouth'd hound appears, Still opening, following still, where'er he steers; The persecuted creature, to and fro, Turns here and there, to scape his Umbrian foe: |
