Divine Sarpedon with regret beheld
Difabled Glaucus flowly quit the field;
His beating breaft with generous ardour glows,
He springs to fight, and flies upon the foes.
Alcmäon firft was doom'd his force to feel;
Deep in his breast he plung'd the pointed steel;
Then, from the yawning wound with fury tore
The fpear, pursued by gushing streams of gore;
Down finks the warriour with a thundering found,
His brazen armour rings against the ground.
Swift to the battlement the victor flies,
Tugs with full force, and every nerve applies;
It shakes; the ponderous ftones disjointed yield; 485
The rolling ruins smoke along the field.
A mighty breach appears, the walls lie bare;
And, like a deluge, rushes in the war.
At once bold Teucer draws the twanging bow,
And Ajax sends his javelin at the foe:
Fix'd in his belt the feather'd weapon stood,
And through his buckler drove the trembling wood; But Jove was present in the dire debate,
To shield his offspring, and avert his fate.
The prince gave back, not meditating flight,
But urging vengeance, and severer fight;
Then, rais'd with hope, and fir'd with glory's charms
His fainting fquadrons to new fury warms :
O where, ye Lycians! is the ftrength you boast?
Your former fame and ancient virtue loft !
The breach lies open, but your chief in vain
Attempts alone the guarded pafs to gain.
Unite, and foon that hoftile fleet fhall fall;
The force of powerful union conquers all.
This juft rebuke inflam'd the Lycian crew,
They join, they thicken, and th' assault renew:
Unmov'd th' embodied Greeks their fury dare,,
And fix'd.fupport the weight of all the war;
Nor could the Greeks repel the Lycian powers,.
Nor the bold Lycians force the Grecian towers..
As, on the confines of adjoining grounds,
Two Aubborn fwains with blows difpute their bounds;
They tug, they fweat; but neither gain or yield,
One foot, one inch, of the contended field :.
Thus obftinate to death they fight, they fall;
Nor thefe can keep, nor those can win, the wall.
Their manly breasts are pierc'd with many a wound,
Loud ftrokes are heard, and rattling arms refound,
The copious flaughter covers all the fhore,
And the high ramparts drop with human gore.
As when two fcales are charged with doubtful loads
From fide to fide the trembling balance nods
(While fome laborious matron, juft and poor,
With nice exactnefs weighs her woolly store),
Till, pois'd aloft, the refting beam fufpends
Each equal weight; nor this, nor that, defcends:
So ftood the war, till Hector's matchless might
With Fates prevailing, turn'd the scale of fight.
Fierce as a whirlwind up the walls he flies,
And fires his hoft with loud repeated cries:
Advance, ye Trojans !. lend your valiant hands,,
Hafte to the fleet, and tofs the blazing brands!
They hear, they run; and, gathering at his call,
Raife fcaling engines, and afcend the wall:
Around the works a wood of glittering fpears
Shoots up, and all the rifing host appears.
A ponderous ftone bold Hector heav'd to throw,
Pointed above, and rough and grofs below:
Not two ftrong men th' enormous weight could raife, Such men as live in thefe degenerate days;
Yet this, as eafy as a fwain could bear
The fnowy fleece, he tofs'd, and shook in air:
For Joye upheld, and lighten'd of its load
Th' unwieldy rock, the labour of a God.
Thus arm'd, before the folded gates he came,
Of mafly fubftance, and ftupendous frame;
With iron bars and brazen hinges strong,
On lofty beams of folid timber hung:
Then, thundering through the planks with forceful fway,
Drives the sharp rock; the folid beams give way, 5.50.
The folds are fhatter'd; from the crackling door
Leap the refounding bars, the flying hinges roar.
Now rushing in, the furious chief appears,
Gloomy as night! and fhakes two fhining spears:
A dreadful gleam from his bright armour came,
And from his eye-balls flash'd the living flame.
He moves a God, refiftlefs in his courfe,
And feems a match for more than mortal force.
Then pouring after, through the gaping space,
A tide of Trojans flows, and fills the place;
The Greeks behold, they tremble, and they fly;
The fhore is heap'd with death, and tumult rends the sky.
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