Page:The Pharsalia of Lucan; (IA cu31924026485809).pdf/119

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Book IV
CÆSAR IN SPAIN
95
Repels the foaming torrent. Nor did nightAcknowledge Phoebus' rise, for all the skyFelt her dominion and obscured its face,And darkness joined with darkness. Thus doth lieThe lowest earth beneath the snowy zoneAnd never-ending winters, where the skyIs starless ever, and no growth of herbSprouts from the frozen earth; but standing iceTempers[1] the stars which in the middle zoneKindle their flames. Thus, Father of the world, 210And thou, trident-god who rul'st the seaSecond in place, Neptunus, load the airWith clouds continual; forbid the tide,Once risen, to return: forced by thy wavesLet rivers backward run in different course,Thy shores no longer reaching; and the earth,Shaken, make way for floods. Let Rhine o'erflowAnd Rhone their banks; let torrents spread afieldUnmeasured waters: melt Rhipæan snows:Spread lakes upon the land, and seas profound, 130And snatch the groaning world from civil war.Thus for a little moment Fortune triedHer darling son; then smiling to his partReturned; and gained her pardon for the pastBy greater gifts to come. For now the airHad grown more clear, and Phoebus' warmer raysCoped with the flood and scattered all the cloudsIn fleecy masses; and the reddening eastProclaimed the coming day; the land resumedIts ancient marks; no more in middle air 140The moisture hung, but from about the starsSank to the depths; the forest glad upreared
  1. ↑ The idea is that the cold of the poles tempers the heat of the equator.
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