Saturday, April 01, 2006
interesting looking, tough-talking & up-to-the-minute Lisa Jarnot versioning of Book 22 of the Iliad from Atticus / Finch but my favorite will always be
Alexander Pope's, which rolls along like a gravy train with biscuit wheels, though I envy and defer to anyone with th' Greek...
"Thus to their bulwarks, smit with panic fear,
The herded Ilians rush like driven deer:
There safe they wipe the briny drops away,
And drown in bowls the labours of the day.
Close to the walls, advancing o'er the fields
Beneath one roof of well-compacted shields,
March, bending on, the Greeks' embodied powers,
Far stretching in the shade of Trojan towers.
Great Hector singly stay'd: chain'd down by fate
There fix'd he stood before the Scaean gate;
Still his bold arms determined to employ,
The guardian still of long-defended Troy."