Parerga/The Burning of Troy

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DESCRIPTION OF THE BURNING OF TROY.

FROM THE SECOND PART OF GÖTHE'S FAUST.

Bieles erlebt ich, obgleich die Locte Jugendlich mallet mir um die Schafe.
CHORUS OF TROJAN CAPTIVES.My locks are waving youthfully,But much have I lived through;Too much of war and miseryHas it been mine to view.I have outlived the deadly nightThat closed on Ilion's falling might.
Through the dust-o'erclouded throng,Where striving warriors press'd along,I heard th' unearthly call;Voices of vengeful DeitiesDiscordant clang'd o'er plain and seas,On to the city-wall.
Yet stood they, Ilion's holy walls.But swift from fanes and towers and hallsThe broad flush of the swallowing flameUp to the midnight heavens came.The wild fire-billows crackling, curling,With their own storms whirl'd and whirling.
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Through the vapour, through the flareOf the lambent forky flashesAwful forms beheld I thereStriding o'er the steaming ashes.Each hostile God 'twas mine to knowWith threatening arm and angry browReveal'd amid destruction's glow.[1]
  1. ↑ Compare Virgil, Æn. II. 608:—
    Hìc, ubi disjectas moles avulsaque saxisSaxa vides, mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum,Neptunus muros, magnoque emota tridentiFundamenta quatit, totamque ab sedibus urbemEruit. Hìc Juno Scæas'sævissima portasPrima tenet, sociumque furens a navibus agmen,Ferro accincta, vocat.Jam summas arces Tritonia, respice, PallasInsedit, nimbo effulgens, et Gorgone'sævâ.Ipse Pater Danais animos viresque secundasSufficit: ipse deos in Dardana suscitat arma.Eripe, nate, fugam, finemque impone labori.Nusquam abero, et tutum patrio te limine sistam.Dixerat: et spissis noctis se condidit umbris.Adparent diræ facies, inimicaque TrojæNumina magna Deûm.
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