Page:An Essay on Virgil's Æneid.djvu/20

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16
The First Book of

And forms a Port, where, curling from the Sea,
The Waves sſteal back, and wind into a Bay.
On either Side, sublime in Air, arise220
Two tow’ring Rocks, whose Summits brave the Skies;
Low at their Feet the sleeping Ocean lies.
Crown’d with a gloomy Shade of waving Woods,
Their awful Brows hang nodding o’er the Floods.
Oppos’d to these, a secret Grotto stands,225
The haunt of Nereids, fram’d by Nature’s Hands;
Where polish’d Seats appear of living Stone,
And limpid Rills, that tinkle as they run.
No Cable here, nor circling Anchor binds
The floating Vessel, harrast with the Winds.230
The Dardan Hero brings to this Retreat
Sev’n shatter’d Ships, the Relics of his Fleet.
With fierce Desire to gain the friendly Strand,
The Trojans leap in Rapture to the Land,
And drench’d in Brine, lye strech’d along the Sand.235

Achates