The Aeneid - Part 3

The Aeneid - Part THREE



Look! Oh the hunt's about to start!
Horses stamp and snarling dogs bark,
And Dawn arises
With Phoebus's light,
The elite anticipating the inevitable fight.

Their wide-meshed nets and hunting snares
And broad swords that each man bears,
Pass the wait
For the queen to appear,
Patiently twiddling their iron spears,

The hunt had come and they wait for she,
Who would lead the hunt with joy and glee,
In her eyes
As she spoke to the man
Who she readily believed was her no.1 fan.

At last she emerged decked in purple and gold,
The splendour of her kingdom without words told
Through her glamour,
And indefinable grace,
The enchantment of Phoenicia clear in her face.

A great horse brays and chomps at his bit,
Eyes of power and mouth rimmed with spit,
Only for her,
Resplendently robed,
Will this beast be tamed and rode.

But Aeneus steps forward with his son and his men,
His offer of escort to Dido to extend.
For he is Apollo,
In metaphorical terms,
As all about him have soon to learn.

He bridges the gap between Carthage and Troy
By walking with Dido instead of his boys.
He sets the pace,
Setting forth with his lance
And getting going the hunt, like Apollo the dance.



They came to the mountains and trackless expanses,
They carried their nets and readied their lances.
The summit above
Smoked with a stampede of goats and deer,
And Iulus launched forward with a shout and a cheer.

He dreamt of a lion that he could kill
He knew it would give him a wonderful thrill.
But what? Oh no!
The thundering hail roles over from above and beyond
And Aeneus and Dido go where they can't be found.

Not by their friends nor by wind or rain,
So poor, old Dido's sanity disappears again.
Mother Earth
And Juno look down and nod their heads,
As a cave becomes their wedding bed.

Nymphs all around cackle and scream,
And as all resistance is lost to the queen.
She begins to believe
That they're husband and wife,
And sadly for her she's not quite right.

And oh woe is her, alas, alack,
She failed at getting her own heart back,
She gave it away,
To the man with such godly traits,
And thus the fool sealed her fate.