Virgil - Aeneid

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His limbs were cold in death; his spirit fled with a groan, indignant, to the shades below.

Virgil
Lo, great Marcellus! see him tower,
With kingly spoils in conquering power,
The warrior host above!

Virgil
Live and be blest! 'tis sweet to feel
Fate's book is closed and under seal.
For us, alas! that volume stern
Has many another page to turn.

Virgil
Learn of your father to be great,
Of others to be fortunate.

Virgil
And the most miserable things which I myself saw and of which I was a major part.

Virgil
My life is lived, and I have played
The part that Fortune gave,
And now I pass, a queenly shade,
Majestic to the grave.

Virgil
In vain she strives with dying hands
To wrench away the blade:
Fixed in her ribs the weapon stands,
Closed by the wound it made.
Bloodless and faint, she gasps for breath;
Her heavy eyes sink down in death;
Her cheek's bright colors fade.

Virgil
Others, I take it, will work better with breathing bronze and draw living faces from marble; others will plead at law with greater eloquence, or measure the pathways of the sky, or forecast the rising stars. Be it your concern, Roman, to rule the nations under law (this is your proper skill) and establish the way of peace; to spare the conquered and put down the mighty from their seat.

Virgil
Now listen while my tongue declares
The tale you ask of Danaan snares,
And gather from a single charge
Their catalogue of crimes at large.

Virgil
An old story, but the glory of it is forever.

Virgil
Thus she spoke and turned away with a flash of her rosy neck, and her ambrosial hair exhaled a divine fragrance; her dress flowed right down to her feet and her true godhead was evident from her walk.

Virgil
Few in number, yet theirs is a valor ardent for war.

Virgil
Each look is pictured in her breast,
Each word: nor passion lets her rest.

Virgil
Thrice would I have thrown my arms about her neck, and thrice the ghost embraced fled from my grasp: like a fluttering breeze, like a fleeting dream.

Virgil
Night came down, and enfolded the earth in her dusky wings.

Virgil
What perils his from war and sea!

Virgil
I yield to Fate, unwillingly retire,
And, loaded, up the hill convey my sire.

Virgil
Good speed to your youthful valor, boy! So shall you scale the stars!

Virgil
He prays to the spirit of the place and to Earth, the first of the gods, and to the Nymphs and as yet unknown rivers.

Virgil
Like rock engirdled by the sea,
Like rock immovable is he.

Virgil
The proffered medicine but provoked the pain.

Virgil
A loftier task the bard essays:
The horizon broadens on his gaze.

Virgil
If I cannot bend Heaven, I shall move Hell.

Virgil
Turnus, what never god would dare
To promise to his suppliant's prayer,
Lo here, the lapse of time has brought
E'en to your hands, unasked, unsought.

Virgil
Each in pathetic suppliance stands,
So may he first be ferried o'er,
And stretches out his helpless hands
In yearning for the further shore.

Virgil
So travelers in a forest move
With but the uncertain moon above,
Beneath her niggard light.

Virgil
As long as rivers shall run down to the sea, or shadows touch the mountain slopes, or stars graze in the vault of heaven, so long shall your honor, your name, your praises endure.

Virgil
Yet still despond not, but proceed
Along the path where Fate may lead.

Virgil
There are two gates of Sleep. One is of horn, easy of passage for the shades of truth; the other, of gleaming white ivory, permits false dreams to ascend to the upper air.

Virgil
Had I a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues,
And throats of brass, inspired with iron lungs,
I could not half those horrid crimes repeat,
Nor half the punishments those crimes have met.

Virgil