Page:The Lusiad (Camões, tr. Mickle, 1791), Volume 2.djvu/122

Stern winter twice deforms the changeful year,
And twice the spring's gay flowers their honours rear.
Now pressing onward, past the burning zone,
Beneath another heaven, and stars unknown,
Unknown to heroes, and to sages old,
With southward prows our pathless course we hold:
Here gloomy night assumes a darker reign,
And fewer stars emblaze the heavenly plain;
Fewer than those that gild the northern pole,
And o'er our seas their glittering chariots roll——
While nightly thus the lonely seas we brave
Another pole-star rises o'er the wave;
Full to the south a shining cross appears;
Our heaving breasts the blissful omen cheers:
Seven radiant stars compose the hallowed sign
That rose still higher o'er the wavy brine.
Beneath this southern axle of the world,
Never, with daring search, was flag unfurl'd;

Nor