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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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Were four white steeds that cropp'd the flow'ry field. 'War, war is threaten'd from this foreign ground,' My father cried, 'where warlike steeds are found. Yet, since reclaim'd to chariots they submit, And bend to stubborn yokes, and champ the bit, Peace may succeed to war.' Our way we bend To Pallas, and the sacred hill ascend; There prostrate to the fierce virago pray, Whose temple was the landmark of our way. Each with a Phrygian mantle veil'd his head, And all commands of Helenus obey'd, And pious rites to Grecian Juno paid. These dues perform'd, we stretch our sails, and stand To sea, forsaking that suspected land. "From hence Tarentum's bay appears in view, For Hercules renown'd, if fame be true. Just opposite, Lacinian Juno stands; Caulonian tow'rs, and Scylacaean strands, For shipwrecks fear'd. Mount Aetna thence we spy, Known by the smoky flames which cloud the sky. Far off we hear the waves with surly sound Invade the rocks, the rocks their groans rebound. The billows break upon the sounding strand, And roll the rising tide, impure with sand. Then thus Anchises, in experience old: ''T is that Charybdis which the seer foretold, And those the promis'd rocks! Bear off to sea!' With haste the frighted mariners obey. First Palinurus to the larboard veer'd; Then all the fleet by his example steer'd. To heav'n aloft on ridgy waves we ride, Then down to hell descend, when they divide; And thrice our galleys knock'd the stony ground, And thrice the hollow rocks return'd the sound, And thrice we saw the stars, that stood with dews around. The flagging winds forsook us, with the sun; And, wearied, on Cyclopian shores we run. The port capacious, and secure from wind, Is to the foot of thund'ring Aetna join'd. By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high; By turns hot embers from her entrails fly, And flakes of mounting flames, that lick the sky. Oft from her bowels massy rocks are thrown, And, shiver'd by the force, come piecemeal down. |
