Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Cuma (Cumæ) | | Cumæ | | Virgil (70–19 B.C.) |
| | (From Æneid, Book VI) Translated by C. P. Cranch
WEEPING he spoke, then gave his fleet the reins, | |
| Until at length Eubœan Cumæ’s shores | |
| They reach. Seaward the prows are turned; the ships | |
| Fast anchored, and the curved sterns fringe the beach. | |
| On the Hesperian shore the warriors leap | 5 |
| With eager haste. Some seek the seminal flame | |
| Hid in the veins of flint; some rob the woods, | |
| The dense abode of beasts, and rivulets | |
| Discover. But the good Æneas seeks | |
| The heights o’er which the great Apollo rules, | 10 |
| And the dread cavern where the Sibyl dwells, | |
| Revered afar, whose soul the Delian god | |
| Inspires with thought and passion, and to her | |
| Reveals the future. And now Dian’s groves | |
| They enter, and the temple roofed with gold. | 15 |
| The story goes, that Dædalus, who fled | |
| From Minos, dared to trust himself with wings | |
| Upon the air, and sailed in untried flight | |
| Toward the frigid Arctic, till at length | |
| He hovered over the Cumæan towers. | 20 |
| Here first restored to earth, he gave to thee, | |
| Phœbus, his oar-like wings, a sacred gift, | |
| And built a spacious temple to thy name. | | | | |
|
|
