Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...filled with demi-gods; Ev'n she had sunk, but Jove's imperial bride Winged her fleet sail, and pushed her o'er the tide. "'High in the air the rock its summit shrouds In brooding tempests and in rolling clouds; Loud storms around and mists eternal rise, Beat its bleak brow, and intercept the skies. When all the broad expansion, bright with day, Glows with the autumnal or the summer ray, The summer and the autumn glow in vain, The sky for ever lowers, for ever clouds remain. Impervious to the step of man it stands, Though borne by twenty feet, though armed with twenty hands; Smooth as the polish of the mirror rise The slippery sides, and shoot into the skies; Full in the centre of this rock displayed, A yawning cavern casts a dreadful shade: Nor the fleet arrow from the twanging bow, Sent with full force, could reach the depth below. Wide to the west the horrid gulf extends, And the dire passage down to hell descends. O fly the dreadful sight, expand thy sails, Ply the strong oar, and catch the nimble gales; Here Scylla bellows from her dire abodes, Tremendous pest, abhorred by man and gods: Hideous her voice, and with less terrors roar The whelps of lions in the midnight hour. Twelve feet deformed and foul the fiend dispreads; Six horrid necks she rears, and six terrific heads; Her jaws grin dreadful with three rows of teeth; Jaggy they stand, the gaping den of death; Her parts obscene the raging billows hide; Her bosom terribly o'erlooks the tide. When stung with hunger she embroils the flood. The sea-dog and the dolphin are her food; She makes the huge leviathan her prey, And all the monsters of the watery way; The swiftest racer of the azure plain Here fills her sails, and spreads her oars in vain; Fell Scylla rises, in her fury...