THE DEATH OF AJAX.
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e who could often, and alone, withstandThe foe, the fire, and Jove's own partial hand,Now cannot his unmastered grief sustain,But yields to rage, to madness, and disdain;Then snatching out his faulchion,--Thou, said he,Art mine; Ulysses lays no claim to thee.O often tried, and ever trusty sword,Now do thy last kind office to thy lord!'Tis Ajax who requests thy aid, to showNone but himself, himself could overthrow.--He said, and with so good a will to die,Did to his breast the fatal point apply,It found his heart, a way till then unknown,Where never weapon entered but his own;No hands could force it thence, so fixt it stood,'Till out it rushed, expelled by streams of spouting blood.The fruitful blood produced a flower[38], which grew }On a green stem, and of a purple hue; }Like his, whom unaware Apollo slew. }Inscribed in both, the letters are the same,But those express the grief, and these the name. FOOTNOTES: [37] Dolon demanded the horses of Achilles, as his reward forexploring the Grecian camp, but was intercepted and slain by Ulysses. [38] The Hyacinth. THE STORY OF ACIS, POLYPHEMUS, AND GALATEA,
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