Page:Orion, an epic poem - Horne (1843, 3rd edition).djvu/40

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
34
Orion.
[Book I.
The banks while they o'erflowed, till starting up,
Bounding he sought his early giant friends.

Them, in their pastoral yet half savage haunts
Found, as of yore, he with brief speech addressed,
And bade them to an orgie on the plain,
By rocks and forests amphitheatred.
Such greeting high they with a gleeful roar
Received, and forthwith rose to follow him,
Save Akinetos, who seemed not to hear,
But looked more grave still seated on a stone,
While they betook them to the plains below.

Thither at once they sped, and on the way
Rhexergon tore down boughs, while Harpax slew
Oxen and deer, more than was need; and soon
On the green space Orion built the pile
With cross logs, underwood, dry turf and ferns,
And cast upon it fat of kine, and heaps
Of crisp dry leaves; and fired the pile, and beat
A hollow shield, and called the Bacchic train,
Who brought their skins of wine, and loaded poles
That bent with mighty clusters of black grapes
Slung midway. In the blaze Orion threw