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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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Shakes earth, and air, and seas; the billows fly Before the bellowing noise to distant Italy. The neigh'ring Aetna trembling all around, The winding caverns echo to the sound. His brother Cyclops hear the yelling roar, And, rushing down the mountains, crowd the shore. We saw their stern distorted looks, from far, And one-eyed glance, that vainly threaten'd war: A dreadful council, with their heads on high; (The misty clouds about their foreheads fly;) Not yielding to the tow'ring tree of Jove, Or tallest cypress of Diana's grove. New pangs of mortal fear our minds assail; We tug at ev'ry oar, and hoist up ev'ry sail, And take th' advantage of the friendly gale. Forewarn'd by Helenus, we strive to shun Charybdis' gulf, nor dare to Scylla run. An equal fate on either side appears: We, tacking to the left, are free from fears; For, from Pelorus' point, the North arose, And drove us back where swift Pantagias flows. His rocky mouth we pass, and make our way By Thapsus and Megara's winding bay. This passage Achaemenides had shown, Tracing the course which he before had run. "Right o'er against Plemmyrium's wat'ry strand, There lies an isle once call'd th' Ortygian land. Alpheus, as old fame reports, has found From Greece a secret passage under ground, By love to beauteous Arethusa led; And, mingling here, they roll in the same sacred bed. As Helenus enjoin'd, we next adore Diana's name, protectress of the shore. With prosp'rous gales we pass the quiet sounds Of still Elorus, and his fruitful bounds. Then, doubling Cape Pachynus, we survey The rocky shore extended to the sea. The town of Camarine from far we see, And fenny lake, undrain'd by fate's decree. In sight of the Geloan fields we pass, And the large walls, where mighty Gela was; Then Agragas, with lofty summits crown'd, Long for the race of warlike steeds renown'd. We pass'd Selinus, and the palmy land, |
