E'en

Here were shown / her arms, and here her chariot; evermore / e'en then this land she cherished as her own, / and here, should Fate permit, had planned a world-wide throne.

E'en as he cried, the hurricane from the North / struck with a roar against the sail. Up leap / the waves to heaven.

"As they, returning, sport with joyous cry, / and flap their wings and circle in the sky, / e'en so thy vessels and each late-lost crew / safe now and scatheless in the harbour lie, / or, crowding canvas, hold the port in view."

E'en such was Dido; so with joyous mien, / urging the business of her rising state, / among the concourse passed the Tyrian queen.

"Then first Thymaetes cries aloud, to go / and through the gates the monstrous horse convey / and lodge it in the citadel. E'en so / his fraud or Troy's dark fates were working for our woe."

"Then straight Ulysses, 'mid tumultuous cries, / drags Calchas forth, and bids the seer unfold / the dark and doubtful meaning of the skies. / Many e'en then the schemer's crime foretold, / and, silent, saw my destiny unrolled."

E'en then – alas! to Trojan ears in vain – / Cassandra sang, and told in utterance plain / the coming doom.

Then Dymas brave / and Hypanis by comrades' hands are slain. / Nor, Panthus, thee thy piety can save, / nor e'en Apollo's wreath preserve thee from the grave.

"Times so dire / not such defenders nor such help require. / Not e'en, were Hector here, my Hector's aid / could save us."

At his heels, aflame / with rage, comes Pyrrhus. Lo, in act to aim, / now, now, he clutches him, – a moment more, / e'en as before his parent's eyes he came, / the long spear reached him. Prostrate on the floor / down falls the hapless youth, and welters in his gore.