Classic Poem

The man of steadfast soul on justice bent
To swerve from right mob clamour cannot break;
No tyrant's brow black with malign intent
The firm foundations of his will can shake,

Nor Auster, restless Hadria's turbulent lord,
Nor Jove the thunder-wielder's mighty hand.
If heaven in ruins on his head be poured,
To meet the shock undaunted will he stand.

Thus Pollux and the rover Hercules
Strove till they won their fort on starry height;
'Twixt whom Augustus lying quaffs at ease
Nectar with rosy lips divinely bright.

Thus, father Bacchus, thee thy tigers learned
To draw with neck ne'er for the collar shaped.
Thus was it that his place Quirinus earned
In Mars's car, and Acheron escaped,

When Juno to the gods in council made
Her welcome speech: ‘A judge corrupt, unjust,
Fate bearing, and a foreign woman laid
Ilion, unhappy Ilion, in the dust:

‘City, e'er since from gods their wages due
Laomedon withheld, by sure decree
Adjudged, with people and prince to faith untrue,
For vengeance to chaste Pallas and to me.

‘No more arrayed in dazzling finery seeks
The infamous guest his Spartan paramour;
Nor Priam's house forsworn the assailing Greeks
With Hector's aid breaks and turns back. The war

‘By our disputes dragged out n settled peace
Has ended. I from henceforth will abate
My heavy wrath, and my grandson's release
To Mars I promise from my rankling hate.

‘That Trojau priestess' child I will permit
To dwell within the abodes of light, to fare
On juice of nectar, in our ranks to sit,
And the calm bliss of heavenly gods to share.

‘So but the stormy sea keep Ilion still
From Rome far severed, let the exiled race
Bear rule and flourish wheresoe'er they will.
So but on Paris' and Priam's burial-place

‘Herds trample, and wild beasts unhunted breed
In desert lairs, the Capitol may tower
Aloft in splendour, and the humbled Mede
Receive his laws from Rome's resistless power.

‘Even to remotest shores, a name of dread,
Let Rome be known—where narrow straits divide
Europe from African, where lies outspread
The Nile in flood o'er all the country side—

‘Strong rather to reject unfound, unsought,
Gold then most fitly placed when in the breast
Of Earth concealed, than grasp with hand that nought
Of sacred spares unto man's use to wrest.

‘By the world's limits only be the way
Barred to her arms. Let her, if so she list,
The zone where tropic fires their revels play
Explore, or that aye soaked with rain and mist.

‘Yet is this law to their high destiny
Attached, I warn the warrior folk of Rome,
That filial love and long prosperity
Tempt them not to restore their Trojan home.

‘Be Troy in evil hour reborn, her tale
Shall, as before, end in sad overthrow;
And I, Jove's wife and sister will not fail
To lead the conquering host against their foe.

‘If thrice again the brazen wall should rise
By Phoebus built, thrice by my Argives ta'en,
'Twould fall; thrice would the wife, as victor's prize
Led captive, mourn her sons and husband slain.’

But whither wilt thou follow, Muse perverse,
This mood that nought the playful lyre beseems?
No further the debates of gods rehearse,
And with light strains belittle lofty themes.