TARANTO (TARENTUM)

TARENTUM

AND next Tarentum's bay,

Named, if report be true, from Hercules,
Is seen; and opposite lifts up her head
The goddess of Lacinia; and the heights
Appear of Caulon, and the dangerous rocks
Of Sylaceum. Then far off we see
Trinacrian Ætna rising from the waves;
And now we hear the ocean's awful roar,
The breakers dashing on the rocks, the moan
Of broken voices on the shore. The deeps
Leap up, and sand is mixed with boiling foam.
"Charybdis!" cries Anchises; "lo, the cliffs,
The dreadful rocks that Helenus foretold!
Save us,-bear off, my men! With equal stroke
Bend to your oars!" No sooner said than done.
With groaning rudder Palinurus turns

The prow to the left, and the whole cohort strain
With oar and sail, and seek a southern course.
The curving wave one moment lifts us up
Skyward, then sinks us down as in the shades

Of death. Three times amid their hollow caves

The cliffs resound; three times we saw the foam Dashed, that the stars hung dripping wet with dew.

Meanwhile, abandoned by the wind and sun,

Weary, and ignorant of our course, we are thrown Upon the Cyclops' shore.

VIRGIL.

Tr. C. P. Cranch.

BRINDISI (BRUNDISIUM)

BRUNDISIUM

UNEQUAL thus to Cæsar, Pompey yields
The fair dominion of Hesperia's fields:
Swift through Apulia march his flying powers,
And seek the safety of Brundusium's towers.
This city a Dictaan people hold,

Here placed by tall Athenian barks of old;
When with false omens from the Cretan shore,
Their sable sails victorious Theseus bore.
Here Italy a narrow length extends,

And in a scanty slip projected ends.

A crooked mole around the waves she winds,
And in her folds the Adriatic binds.

Nor yet the bending shores could form a bay,
Did not a barrier isle the winds delay,

And break the seas tempestuous in their way. Huge mounds of rocks are placed by nature's hand,

To guard around the hospitable strand;
To turn the storm, repulse the rushing tide,
And bid the anchoring bark securely ride.
Hence Nereus wide the liquid main displays,
And spreads to various ports his watery ways;

BRINDISI (BRUNDISIUM)

Whether the pilot from Corcyra stand
Or for Illyrian Epidamnus' strand.
Hither when all the Adriatic roars,

And thundering billows vex the double shores;
When sable clouds around the welkin spread,
And frowning storms involve Ceraunia's head;
When white with froth Calabrian Sason lies,
Hither the tempest-beaten vessel flies.

LUCAN.

355

Tr. Nicholas Rowe.

ANCONA

POPPIES IN THE WHEAT

ALONG Ancona's hills the shimmering heat,
A tropic tide of air, with ebb and flow
Bathes all the fields of wheat until they glow
Like flashing seas of green, which toss and beat
Around the vines. The poppies lithe and fleet
Seem running, fiery torchmen, to and fro

To mark the shore. The farmer does not know
That they are there. He walks with heavy feet,
Counting the bread and wine for autumn's gain,
But I, I smile to think that days remain
Perhaps to me in which, though bread be sweet
No more, and red wine warm my blood in vain,
I shall be glad remembering how the fleet,
Lithe poppies ran like torchmen with the wheat.

HELEN FISKE JACKSON.