Classic Poem

When the false-hearted shepherd o'er the seas
With Trojan ships his hostess, Helen, bore,
The swift winds Nereus in unwelcome ease
Held back, while thus of woe in store

He sang: ‘Ill omens mar thy home coming
With her for whom great armies Greece will send
Leagued to annul thy nuptials, and to bring
On Priam's ancient realm the end.

‘Ah me! what toil for horse and man through thee,
What scenes of death await the Dardan race!
Pallas her aegis, helm, and car I see
Prepare with rage that grows apace.

‘With courage vain, while Venus guards from harm,
Thou'lt comb thy locks, and sing in women's ears
To the soft lute lays meet their sex to charm;
And safety from the heavy spears

‘And Cretan arrows in thy chamber gain,
Far from the battle's roar and swift pursuit
Of Ajax; yet at last the dusty plain
Shall thine adulterous curls pollute.

‘Hast not Ulysses who to Troy shall bear
Her fate, hast Pylian Nestor not in sight?
Hard on thy footsteps press the intrepid pair,
Teucer, and Sthenelus proved in fight

‘And, when need calls, no laggard charioteer.
Meriones too thou'lt know. With stern desire
To track thee down scours furious far and near
Tydides greater than his sire;

‘From whom, as deer that, spying in the dale
A wolf far off, no more the herbage heeds,
Thou'lt flee with catching breath and limbs that fail,
Nor match thy words to her with deeds.

‘Wrath in Achilles' fleet awhile shall hold
From Ilion and from Phrygian wives their doom
When the fixed tale of winters has been told
Fire shall the homes of Troy consume.’