Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/365
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STATIUS his THEBAIS.
329
From whose dark womb a ratling tempest pours,
Which the cold north congeals to haily show'rs.
From pole to pole the thunder roars aloud,
And broken lightnings flash from ev'ry cloud.
Now smoaks with show'rs the misty mountain-ground,
And floated fields lie undistinguish'd round:
Th' Inachian streams with headlong fury run,
And Erasinus rowls a deluge on:
The foaming Lerna swells above its bounds,
And spreads its ancient poisons o'er the grounds:
Where late was dust, now rapid torrents play,
Rush thro' the mounds, and bear the damms away:
Old limbs of trees from crackling forests torn,
Are whirl'd in air, and on the winds are born;
The storm the dark Lycean groves display'd,
And first to light expos'd the sacred shade.
Th' intrepid Theban hears the bursting sky,
Sees yawning rocks in massy fragments fly,
And views astonish'd, from the hills afar,
The floods descending and the watry war,
Which the cold north congeals to haily show'rs.
From pole to pole the thunder roars aloud,
And broken lightnings flash from ev'ry cloud.
Now smoaks with show'rs the misty mountain-ground,
And floated fields lie undistinguish'd round:
Th' Inachian streams with headlong fury run,
And Erasinus rowls a deluge on:
The foaming Lerna swells above its bounds,
And spreads its ancient poisons o'er the grounds:
Where late was dust, now rapid torrents play,
Rush thro' the mounds, and bear the damms away:
Old limbs of trees from crackling forests torn,
Are whirl'd in air, and on the winds are born;
The storm the dark Lycean groves display'd,
And first to light expos'd the sacred shade.
Th' intrepid Theban hears the bursting sky,
Sees yawning rocks in massy fragments fly,
And views astonish'd, from the hills afar,
The floods descending and the watry war,
That