When he, that shepherd false, 'neath Phrygian sail ; <br />Carried his hostess Helen o'er the seas, <br />In fitful slumber Nereus hush'd the gales, <br />That he might sing their future destinies. <br />A curse to your ancestral home you take <br />With her, whom Greece, with many a soldier bold, <br />Shall seek again, in concert sworn to break <br />Your nuptial ties and Priam's kingdom old. <br />Alas ! what sweat from man and horse must flow, <br />What devastation to the Trojan realm <br />You carry, even now doth Pallas show <br />Her wrath—preparing buckler, car, and helm. <br />In vain, secure in Aphrodite's care, <br />You comb your locks, and on the girlish lyre <br />Select the strains most pleasant to the fair ; <br />In vain, on couch reclining, you desire <br />To shun the darts that threaten, and the thrust <br />Of Cretan lance, the battle's wild turmoil, <br />And Ajax swift to follow—in the dust <br />Condemned, though late, your wanton curls to soil. <br />Ah ! see you not where (fatal to your race) <br />Laertes' son comes with the Pylean sage ; <br />Fearless alike, with Teucer joins the chase <br />Steneläus, skill'd the fistic strife to wage, <br />Nor less expert the fiery steeds to quell ; <br />And Meriones, you must know. Behold <br />A warrior, than his sire more fierce and fell, <br />To find you rages,—Diomed the bold, <br />Whom, like the stag that, far across the vale, <br />The wolf being seen, no herbage can allure, <br />So fly you, panting sorely, dastard pale !— <br />Not thus you boasted to your paramour. <br />Achilles' anger for a space defers <br />The day of wrath to Troy and Trojan dame ; <br />Inevitable glide the allotted years, <br />And Dardan roofs must waste in Argive flame.<br /><br />Adam Lindsay Gordon<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/pastor-cum/
