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Cover of The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse

The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse

by Virgil (-70–-19)

  • Free to read
  • 7 hours to read
  • 12 chapters
  • Reading level: 8th & 9th grade

"The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse by William Morris" is a poetic narrative that presents an epic tale written in the late 19th century. The story follows Æneas, a Trojan hero, as he embarks on a tumultuous journey from the ruins of Troy to Italy, encountering numerous challenges and divine interventions along the way. At its core, the work explores themes of fate, struggle, and the founding of nations, setting the stage for significant historical legacies. The opening of the text introduces Æneas and his beleaguered crew as they are marooned on the shores of Libya after being cast about by a tempest at sea. As they recover from the storm, Æneas looks to the vast expanse of water to find missing comrades, while the narrative hints at the impending encounter with Dido, the Queen of Carthage. Juno’s wrath and Venus’s intervention foreshadow the divine forces at play in Æneas’s struggle for destiny, establishing a tension between human effort and divine will. Ultimately, the passage sets the foundation for the epic tale of adventure, longing, and fate that will unfold as Æneas endeavors to establish his legacy in a new land.

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  • Aeneas (Legendary character)
  • Epic poetry, Latin · Translations into English

Read the opening

Book I

ARGUMENT.

ÆNEAS AND HIS TROJANS BEING DRIVEN TO LIBYA BY A TEMPEST, HAVE GOOD WELCOME OF DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE.

Lo I am he who led the song through slender reed to cry,
And then, come forth from out the woods, the fields that are thereby
In woven verse I bade obey the hungry tillers' need:
Now I, who sang their merry toil, sing Mars and dreadful deed.

I sing of arms, I sing of him, who from the Trojan land
Thrust forth by Fate, to Italy and that Lavinian strand
First came: all tost about was he on earth and on the deep
By heavenly might for Juno's wrath, that had no mind to sleep:
And plenteous war he underwent ere he his town might frame
And set his Gods in Latian earth, whence is the Latin name,
And father-folk of Alba-town, and walls of mighty Rome.

Say, Muse, what wound of godhead was whereby all this must come,
How grieving, she, the Queen of Gods, a man so pious drave
To win such toil, to welter on through such a troublous wave: 10
—Can anger in immortal minds abide so fierce and fell?

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Contents

  1. Book I
  2. Book II
  3. Book III
  4. Book IV
  5. Book V
  6. Book VI
  7. Book VII
  8. Book VIII
  9. Book IX
  10. Book X
  11. Book XI
  12. Book XII

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About this edition

This free edition of The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse by Virgil comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #29358, released 2009-07-09. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Poetry, Mythology, Legends & Folklore, Classics of Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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