Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne

Gawain Douglas (c. 1474–1522)

Extracts from the Aeneid: The Tribes of the Dead

DURING this tyme Eneas gan aduert,

Within a vaill fer thens closit apert,

Quhair stude a wod with sowchand bewis schene,

The flude Lethe flowand throw the fair grene;

About the quhilk peple vnnomerable,

And silly saulis, fleis fast, but fabill,

Quhill all the feildis of thar dyn resoundis:

Lyke as in medowis and fresche fluris boundis,

The byssy beis in schene symmeris tyde,

On diuers colorit flouris scalit wyde,

Flokkis about the blomyt lillyis quhyte,

And vthir fragrant blosumys redemyte.