The first attack the Grecians scarce sustain, Repulsed, they yield; the Trojans seize the slain. Then fierce they rally, to revenge led on By the swift rage of Ajax Telamon. (Ajax to Peleus’ son the second name, In graceful stature next, and next in fame.) With headlong force the foremost ranks he tore; So through the thicket bursts the mountain boar, And rudely scatters, for a distance round, The frighted hunter and the baying hound. The son of Lethus, brave Pelasgus’ heir, Hippothous, dragg’d the carcase through the war; The sinewy ankles bored, the feet he bound With thongs inserted through the double wound: Inevitable fate o’ertakes the deed; Doom’d by great Ajax’ vengeful lance to bleed: It cleft the helmet’s brazen cheeks in twain; The shatter’d crest and horse-hair strow the plain: With nerves relax’d he tumbles to the ground: The brain comes gushing through the ghastly wound: He drops Patroclus’ foot, and o’er him spread, Now lies a sad companion of the dead: Far from Larissa lies, his native air, And ill requites his parents’ tender care. Lamented youth! in life’s first bloom he fell, Sent by great Ajax to the shades of hell.