Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/38

 

Whence the wind drives the thin clouds' sweepy train:
Lives there, who deems the Sun's predictions vain?
He warns, when madding tumults are at hand,
When fraud, and wars long-hidden threat the land:
He felt a pang for Rome, great Cæsar dead, 545
When with dark purple his refulgent head
He veil'd from view, and, shuddering at the sight,
The guilty nations fear'd eternal night.
Earth too, the billows of the wat'ry way,
Birds, and ill-omen'd dogs presag'd that day. 550
Oft Ætna waving has been seen to pour
O'er the Cyclopean fields a burning show'r
From her rent caverns, and with bellowing sound
Shoot globes of fire, and molten rocks around.
Germania heard aerial clang of arms; 555
And Alps, portentous, shook with new alarms.
Thro' the still groves oft, bursting on the ear,
A loud voice swells: all-ghastly pale appear
Spectres at dusk of eve: beasts hold discourse,
Hideous to tell! and rivers cease their course: 560
Earth yawns: the sorrowing iv'ry in the fanes
Weeps, and a trickling dew the brass distains.
Eridanus, great king of Latian floods,
With rapid whirl uprooted loftiest woods,

And