FLIGHT OF CRANES.
A SIMILE FROM HOMER.
As when of many sorts the long-neck’d fowl
Unto the large and flowing plain repair,
Through which Cayster’s waters gently roll,
In multitudes—high flying in the air,
Now here, now there fly, priding on their wing,
And by-and-by at once light on the ground,
And with their clamor make the air to ring,
And th’ earth whereon they settle to resound;
So when the Achaians went up from the fleet,
And on their march were to the towers of Troy,
The earth resounded loud with hoofs and feet.
But on Scamander’s flowery bank they stray,
In number like the flowers of the field,
Or leaves in spring, or multitude of flies
In some great dairy, round the vessels filled,
Delighted with the milk, dance, fall, and rise.
Translated by Hobbes.