Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/281

Thou Tiber, with thy sacred flow,
The beauty of the earth,
Receive Æneas, and at length
Abate the toils that waste his strength.
Whate'er the source where, calm and still,
Thou givest a thought to this our ill,
Where'er thou spring'st to life divine,
My gifts, my worship shall be thine,
Blest power, o'er each Italian stream
The horned monarch crowned supreme.
Be near to succour us, and seal
The omen that thy words reveal.'
This said, he chooses biremes two,
Provides them oars, and arms the crew:
When lo! a sudden prodigy:
A milk-white sow is seen
Stretched with her young ones, white as she,
Along the margent green.
Æneas takes them, dam and brood,
And o'er the altar pours their blood,
To thee, great Juno, e'en to thee,
High heaven's majestic queen.
All night the Tiber calmed his flood,
And stayed its onward course, and stood,
That smooth might lie the watery floor,
Nor aught impede the toiling oar.
So speed they on 'mid joyful cries;
Careened, the vessels glide;
And waves and woods with strange surprise
See glittering steel and painted keel
Advancing up the tide.
Still rowing on, they wear away
The energies of night and day,
O'erpass fall many a lengthy reach,
'Neath alder shade or spreading beech,