From ship to ship thus Ajax swiftly flew, No less the wonder of the warring crew. As furious, Hector thunder’d threats aloud, And rush’d enraged before the Trojan crowd; Then swift invades the ships, whose beaky prores Lay rank’d contiguous on the bending shores; So the strong eagle from his airy height, Who marks the swans’ or cranes’ embodied flight, Stoops down impetuous, while they light for food, And, stooping, darkens with his wings the flood. Jove leads him on with his almighty hand, And breathes fierce spirits in his following band. The warring nations meet, the battle roars, Thick beats the combat on the sounding prores. Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire, No force could tame them, and no toil could tire; As if new vigour from new fights they won, And the long battle was but then begun. Greece, yet unconquer’d, kept alive the war, Secure of death, confiding in despair: Troy in proud hopes already view’d the main Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes slain: Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair, And each contends, as his were all the war.