Now here, now there, the carcafes they tore :
Fate stalk'd amidst them, grim with human gore.
And the whole war came out, and met the eye;
And each bold figure feem'd to live, or die.

A field deep-furrow'd, next, the God defign'd,
The third time labour'd by the sweating hind;
The fhining fhares full many ploughmen guide,
And turn their crooked yokes on every fide:
Still as at either end they wheel around,

625

630

The mafter meets them with his goblet crown'd;
The hearty draught rewards, renews their toil,

Then back the turning plough-fhares cleave the foil: Behind, the rifing earth in ridges roll'd;

635

And fable look'd, though form'd of molten gold,
Another field rofe high with waving grain;

With bended fickles ftand the reaper-train :

Here, ftretch'd in ranks, the level'd swarths are found, Sheaves heap'd on fheaves here thicken up the ground. With fweeping ftroke the mowers ftrow the lands; The gatherers follow, and collect in bands;

And laft the children, in whofe arms are borne

(Too fhort to gripe them) the brown fheaves of corn.

The ruftic monarch of the field defcries,

645

With filent glee, the heaps around him rife.

A ready banquet on the turf is laid,
Beneath an ample oak's expanded shade.
The victim ox the sturdy youth prepare ;
The reaper's due repaft, the womens' care.

Next, ripe in yellow gold, a vineyard shines,
Bent with the ponderous harvest of its vines;

650

A deeper

A deeper dye the dangling clusters show,
And, curl'd on filver props, in order glow:
A darker metal mixt, intrench'd the place;
And pales of glittering tin th' enclosure grace.
To this, one path-way gently-winding leads,

655

Where march a train with baskets on their heads (Fair maids, and blooming youths) that smiling bear The purple product of th' autumnal year.

660

To these a youth awakes the warbling strings,
Whofe tender lay the fate of Linus fings;
In meafur'd dance behind him move the train,
Tune foft the voice, and answer to the strain.

Here, herds of oxen march, erect and bold,
Rear high their horns, and feem to low in gold,
And speed to meadows, on whofe founding shores
A rapid torrent through the rushes roars:
Four golden herdsmen as their guardians stand,
And nine four dogs compleat the ruftic band.
Two lions rufhing from the wood appear'd,
And feiz'd a bull, the mafter of the herd:

665

670

He roar'd in vain the dogs, the men, withstood;

They tore his flesh, and drank the fable blood.

The dogs (oft chear'd in vain) defert the prey,

675.

Dread the grim terrours, and at distance bay.
Next this, the eye the art of Vulcan leads
Deep through fair forests, and a length of meads;
And stalls, and folds, and scatter'd cots between;
And fleecy flocks, that whiten all the scene.

680

A figur'd dance fucceeds: fuch once was seen In lofty Gnoffus; for the Cretan queen,

Form'd

Form'd by Dædalean art: a comely band

Of youths and maidens, bounding hand in hand.
The maids in foft cymars of linen dreft;
The youths all graceful in the gloffy veft:
Of those the locks with flowery wreaths inroll'd;
Of these the fides adorn'd with swords of gold,

That, glittering gay, from filver belts depend.
Now all at once they rife, at once defcend

685

690

With well-taught feet: now shape, in oblique ways,
Confus'dly regular, the moving maze :

Now forth at once, too fwift for fight, they spring,
And undiftinguifh'd blend the flying ring.

So whirls a wheel, in giddy circle toft,

And rapid as it runs, the fingle fpokes are loft.
The gazing multitudes admire around,
Two active tumblers in the centre bound;
Now high, now low, their pliant limbs they bend:
And general fongs the sprightly revel end.

695

Thus the broad shield complete the artist crown'd
With his last hand, and pour'd the ocean round :
In living filver seem'd the waves to roll,

And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole.

This done, whate'er a warriour's ufe requires,
He forg'd; the cuirafs that outshines the fires,
The greaves of ductile tin, the helm imprest
With various fculpture, and the golden creft..
At Thetis' feet the finish'd labour lay;
She, as a falcon, cuts th' aerial way,

Swift from Olympus' fnowy fummit flies,
And bears the blazing present through the skies.

700

705

710

ARGUMENT.

The Reconciliation of Achilles and Agamemnon.

THETIS brings to her fon the armour made by Vulcan. She preferves the body of his friend from corruption, and commands him to affemble the army, to declare his refentment at an end. Agamemnon and Achilles are folemnly reconciled: the fpeeches, prefents, and ceremonies, on that occafion. Achilles is with great difficulty perfuaded to refrain from the battle till the troops have refreshed themselves, by the advice of Ulyffes. The prefents are conveyed to the tent of Achilles; where Brifeïs laments over the body of Patroclus. The hero obftinately refufes all repaft, and gives himself up to lamentations for his friend. Minerva defcends to strengthen him, by the order of Jupiter. He arms for the fight: his appearance defcribed. He addreffes himself to his horfes, and reproaches them with the death of Patroclus. One of them is miraculoufiy endued with voice, and inspired to prophefy his fate; but the hero, not aftonished by that prodigy, rushes with fury to the combat.

The thirtieth day. The fcene is on the fea-fhore.