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Here, where you see huge blocks unfixed
And dust and smoke in whirlwind mixed,
Great Neptune with his three-forked mace
Upheaves the ramparts from their place,
And rocks the town from cope to base.
Here Juno at the Scæan gates,
Begirt with steel, impatient waits,
And clamorous from the navy calls
Her comrades to the captured walls
Look back—see Pallas o'er the tower
With cloud and Gorgon redly lower.
E'en Jove to Greece his strength affords,
And fights from heaven 'gainst Dardan swords.
Then fly, and give the struggle o'er;
Myself will guard you, till once more
You stand before your father's door.'
She spoke, and vanished from my sight,
Lost in the darkness of the night.
Dire presences their forms disclose,
And powers of terror, Ilium's foes.

That vision showed me Neptune's town
In blazing ruin sinking down:
As rustics strive with many a stroke
To fell some venerable oak;
It still keeps nodding to its doom,
Still bows its head, and shakes its plume,
Till, by degrees o'ercome, one groan
It heaves, and on the hill lies prone.
Down from my perilous height I glide,
Safe sheltered by my heavenly guide,
So thread my way through foes and fire:
The darts give place, the flames retire.

But when I gained Anchises' door
And stood within my home once more,