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Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770

"Poetical Works of Akenside"

For thither once
His warlike steeds the hero led, and there
Contended through the tumult of the course
With skilful wheels. Then victor at the goal,
Amid the applauses of assembled Greece,
High on his car he stood and waved his arm.
Silence ensued: when straight the herald's voice
Was heard, inviting every Grecian youth, 180
Whom Clisthenes content might call his son,
To visit, ere twice thirty days were pass'd,
The towers of Sicyon. There the chief decreed,
Within the circuit of the following year,
To join at Hymen's altar, hand in hand
With his fair daughter, him among the guests
Whom worthiest he should deem. Forthwith from all
The bounds of Greece the ambitious wooers came:
From rich Hesperia; from the Illyrian shore,
Where Epidamnus over Adria's surge 190
Looks on the setting sun; from those brave tribes
Chaonian or Molossian, whom the race
Of great Achilles governs, glorying still
In Troy o'erthrown; from rough Aetolia, nurse
Of men who first among the Greeks threw off
The yoke of kings, to commerce and to arms
Devoted; from Thessalia's fertile meads,
Where flows Peneus near the lofty walls
Of Cranon old; from strong Eretria, queen
Of all Euboean cities, who, sublime 200
On the steep margin of Euripus, views
Across the tide the Marathonian plain,
Not yet the haunt of glory.


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