Flammable

What men or gods in my frenzy did I not   
Cry out against? What worse sight had I seen?   
I left Ascanius and Anchises and   
The household gods in the care of my companions   
And I found a secluded place deep in a valley   
For them to hide, and I myself took up   
My shining weapons and sought the city again,   
Determined, no matter what, to look for my   
Creüsa everywhere in Troy. I find   
My way along the walls and to, and through,   
The shadowed gate I’d left the city by;   
Carefully, step by unseen step, in the dark,   
Backwards the way I came I make my way;   
Everywhere as I go fills me with terror;   
The very silence around me fills me with terror.   
I make my way to my home in case, in case,   
She’s gone back there. The Greeks had invaded the house   
And set it on fire, and through the house the fire   
Rolled up on the surge of the wind to the very roof,   
And the flames tower high above the burning house   
And the heat of the burning pours up into the sky.


from Aeneid, by Virgil (translated by David Ferry)