1s07a Origmal Poctry. 264 
Chimzra wrapp’d in flames, the Gorgon maid, 
. Yo 
The Harpy’s ravenous crew, and Geryon’s 
triple shade. 
These fearful visions as the Prince sur- 
vey'd, 
With terer struck, he drew his shining 
blade, 
And, rushing on the forms, had wasted there 
His truitless blows upon the yielding air ; 
ut his wise guide forbad him to pursue 
Those incorporeal forms thar. mock’d his 
view 5 
And had him see, where straight before them 
lay 
To Acheron’s Tartarean flood their way ; 
Whose gulph in muddy torrents bursts its 
shores, 
And all te soil to black Cecvtus pours. 
The dreadful boatman on these dismal sands, 
Sordid with squalid filth, old Charon stands, 
(Thick acd uncomb’d: his grisly beard they 
view’d, 
His eyes all flame, vile rags, ungirt and 
rude, 
Goose hanging down his back) while with his 
oer 
He pushed his hoat along the shelving shore, 
And thence transported to its furthér coasts, 
In his dark boat the disembodied ghosts. 
In years he seems, but his strong limbs dis- 
play 
A hoary vigour and a green decay. 
Crowds to the banks in wild confusion 
throng’d 
Gf airy forms, to which in life belong’d 
The hero’s soul, the virgin’s spotless fame, 
The lover’s aviatlis the matron’s- honour’d 
name, 
Or youths ill-fated, to the funeral fires 
Untimely follow’d by their weeping sires :— 
Numerous as leaves that in the dying wood 
Are by the first chiil blast of autumn strew’d, 
Or flight of birds, that winter o’er the main 
Drives to the shelter of a warmer plain. 
With stretch’d-out hands a BAs*aBs they im- 
plore, 
Wild with desire to gain the further ale 
The boatman these admits, but those com- 
mands 
With low’ring brows to quit the crowded 
sands. 
fEneas, struck with the tumultuous scene, 
¢ Oh tell mz, Virgin, what these wonders 
-4 mean ! 
What do these thronging ghosts demand ? and 
why 
Are some compell’d from the sad shore to fy, 
While some are o’er the lake’s duil waves con- 
vey’d the 
To him, thus amswer’d the prophetic maid, 
‘¢ Here, son of mightiest Jove, thine eyes bave 
view'd 
Cocytus’ stagnant waters, and the fled 
4 
Of fatal Styx, by whose dread power to 
SWEAT, 
And break their vow, the blest Immortals 
fear. 
‘6 That ancient man is Charon—those, the 
ghosts 
By funeral rites allow'd to pass these coasts. 
Tne crowd which backward urge unwilling 
flight, 
Unburied souls, that in these realms of 
night 
A hundred years (unless the friendly temb, 
Sheltering their bones, first end their wretch= 
ed doom) 
A hundred wretched years must still remain, 
Hopeless and shiv’ring on this naked piain, 
And flit around the" shore, and view. the § 
Jake in vain.’ 
Ii. 
THE VALE OF LOVERS. 
INTERVIEW OF ZNEAS AND DIDO. 
(From vu. 440 to 476.) 
Not far from hence on every side appears 
The dismal prospect of the Vale of Tears, 
Where all whom Love, with unrelentiag 
waste, 
Hath swept trom earth, by Jove’s command 
* are plac’ d. 
In secret paths, amidst the myrtle” s glooms 
Cares, e’en in death, the mournful ghosts con= 
sume. 
Phedra and Procris in this vale repose, 
Sad Eriphyle her bleeding bosom shews 
(Gord with unnatural wounds), Evadne here 
And thelas civious dame of Crete appear : 
Laodamia joins the pensive train, 
And Czneus, to her sex restor’d again, 
‘Through the long forest’s melancholy 
Shade, 
Among the rest, Phenician Dido stray*d, 
(Her breast fresh-reeking from th’ unhal- 
low’d blade). 
To whom, as near the ‘Trojan hero drew, 
And thro’ th? uncertain, shadowy darkness 
poeta 
(Like one who sees amid the clouds of night, 
Or thinks he sees, the new-imeon’s trembling 
light) 
While down his face fast streams of sorrow 
roll, 
He thus pours out the feelings of his soul : 
«¢ Unhappy Dido! then the fame was true 
Which brought thee, bleeding, dying, to my 
view. 
I was the cause—yet, by the stars I swear, 
By the high gods, by allt! rings sacred here 
(Lf ought be sacred in this realm of ghosts), 
I leit, ‘compell? d, your hospitable cousts : 
No wish of mine ere one from your abodes, 
But the relentless mandave of the gods 5 
(That high inexorable fate, which now 
Through these dire regions of eternal woe, 
This dreary realm s impenetrable gloom, 
Compells my uaresisting steps to come.) 
+ 
Vee 
