The third in wisdom, where they all were wise! 
But when, to try the fortune of the day,
Host moved toward host in terrible array,
Before the van, impatient for the fight,
With martial port he strode, and stern delight: 
Heaps strew’d on heaps beneath his falchion groan’d,
And monuments of dead deform’d the ground. 
The time would fail should I in order tell
What foes were vanquish’d, and what numbers fell: 
How, lost through love, Eurypylus was slain,
And round him bled his bold Cetaean train. 
To Troy no hero came of nobler line,
Or if of nobler, Memnon, it was thine.

“When Ilion in the horse received her doom,
And unseen armies ambush’d in its womb,
Greece gave her latent warriors to my care,
’Twas mine on Troy to pour the imprison’d war: 
Then when the boldest bosom beat with fear,
When the stern eyes of heroes dropp’d a tear,
Fierce in his look his ardent valour glow’d,
Flush’d in his cheek, or sallied in his blood;
Indignant in the dark recess he stands,
Pants for the battle, and the war demands: 
His voice breathed death, and with a martial air
He grasp’d his sword, and shook his glittering spear. 
And when the gods our arms with conquest crown’d,
When Troy’s proud bulwarks smoked upon the ground,
Greece, to reward her soldier’s gallant toils,
Heap’d high his navy with unnumber’d spoils.

“Thus great in glory, from the din of war
Safe he return’d, without one hostile scar;
Though spears in iron tempests rain’d around,
Yet innocent they play’d, and guiltless of a wound.’

“While yet I spoke, the shade with transport glow’d,
Rose in his majesty, and nobler trod;
With haughty stalk he sought the distant glades
Of warrior kings, and join’d the illustrious shades.

“Now without number ghost by ghost arose,
All wailing with unutterable woes. 
Alone, apart, in discontented mood,
A gloomy shade the sullen Ajax stood;
For ever sad, with proud disdain he pined,
And the lost arms for ever stung his mind;
Though to the contest Thetis gave the laws,
And Pallas, by the Trojans, judged the cause. 
O why was I victorious in the strife? 
O dear bought honour with so brave a life! 
With him the strength of war, the soldier’s pride,
Our second hope to great Achilles, died! 
Touch’d at the sight from tears I scarce refrain,
And tender sorrow thrills in every vein;
Pensive and sad I stand, at length accost
With accents mild the inexorable ghost: 
’Still burns thy rage? and can brave souls resent
E’en after death?  Relent, great shade, relent! 
Perish those arms which by the gods’ decree
Accursed our army with the loss of thee! 
With thee we fall; Greece wept thy hapless fates,
And shook astonish’d through her hundred states;
Not more, when great Achilles press’d the ground,
And breathed his manly spirit through the wound. 
O deem thy fall not owed to man’s decree,
Jove hated Greece, and punish’d Greece in thee! 
Turn then; oh peaceful turn, thy wrath control,
And calm the raging tempest of thy soul.’