Her middle part below,
The stars in Cancer few, and faintly glow: 150
'Neath her hind feet, as rushing on his prey,
The lordly Lion greets the God of day,
When out of Cancer, in his torrid car
Borne high, he shoots his arrows from afar,
Scorching the empty fields, and thirsty plain:
Secures the barn the harvest's golden grain.
Then murmur first with hollow sound and deep—
Portentous warning—soon o'er ocean sweep
Th’ Etesian winds. Black Neptune's bosom heaves:
He frowns at first, and curbs his restless waves. 160
But soon joins headlong in the desperate fray,
Careering madly on the foaming spray.
Give me a vessel broad, if doom'd to brave
These wild winds’ fury, and the warring wave.
Next the broad back and sinewy limbs appear
Of fam'd Auriga—dauntless charioteer—
Who lash'd the untam’d coursers to the yoke,
And scour'd the dusty plain with fervid spoke.
Now round the pole he holds his swift career,
While presses on his track the greater Bear. 170
Far in the north his giant form begins,
Reaching athwart the sky the distant Twins.
The sacred Goat upon his shoulder rests—
To infant Jove she gave a mother's breasts,
