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The herald now arrives, and guides along
The sacred master of celestial song :

Dear to the Muse! who gave his days to flow
With mighty blessings, mix'd with mighty woe:
With clouds of darkness quench'd his visual ray,
But gave him skill to raise the lofty lay,
High on a radiant throne sublime in state,
Encircled by huge multitudes, be sate:
With silver shone the throne; his lyre well strung
To rapturous sounds, at hand Pontonous hung:
Before his seat a polish'd table shines,

And a full goblet foams with generous wines:
His food a herald bore: and now they fed:
And now the rage of craving hunger fed.

Then, fir'd by all the Muse aloud he sings
The mighty deeds of demi-gods and kings:
From that fierce wrath the noble song arose,
That made Ulysses and Achilles foes:

How o'er the feast they doom the fall of Troy;
The stern debate Atrides hears with joy:
For Heaven foretold the contest, when he trod
The marble threshold of the Delphic god,
Curious to learn the counsels of the sky,
Ere yet he loos'd the rage of war on Troy.

Touch'd at the song, Ulysses straight resign'd
To soft affliction all his manly mind:
Before his eyes the purple vest he drew,
Industrious to conceal the falling dew:
But when the music paus'd, he ceased to shed
The flowing tear, and rais'd his drooping head:
And, lifting to the gods a goblet crown'd,
He pour'd a pure libation to the ground.

Transported with the song, the listening train
Again with loud applause demand the strain:
Again Ulysses veil'd his pensive head,
Again, unmann'd, a shower of sorrow shed:
Conceal'd he wept: the king observ'd alone
The silent tear, and heard the secret groan:
Then to the bard aloud: " O cease to sing,
Dumb be thy voice, and mute th' harmonious
string;

Enough the feast has pleas'd, enough the power
Of heavenly song has crown'd the genial hour!
Incessant in the games your strength display;
Contest, ye brave, the honours of the day:
That, pleas'd, th' admiring stranger may pro-
claim

In distant regions the Phæacian fame:
None wield the gauntlet with so dire a sway,
Or swifter in the race devour the way;
None in the leap spring with so strong a bound,
Or firmer, in the wrestling, press the ground."
Thus spoke the king; th' attending peers obey:
In state they move, Alcinous leads the way:
His golden lyre Demodochus unstrung,
High on a column in the palace hung:
And, guided by a herald's guardian cares,
Majestic to the lists of fame repairs.

Now swarms the populace; a countless throng,
Youth and hoar age; and man drives man along :
The games begin; ambitious of the prize,
Acronens, Thoön, and Eretineus rise;
The prize Ocyalus and Prymneus claim,
Anchialus and Ponteus, chiefs of fame:
There Proreus, Neates, Eratreus appear,
And fam'd Amphialus, Polyneus' heir;
Euryalus like Mars terrific rose,

When elai in wrath he withers hosts of facs :
Naubolides with grace unequall'd shone,
Or equal'd by Laodamas alone.

With these came forth Ambasineus the strong;
And three brave sons, from great Alcinous sprung.
Rang'd in a line the ready racers stand,
Start from the goal, and vanish o'er the strand:
Swift as on wings of winds upborne they fly,
And drifts of rising dust involve the sky:
Before the rest, what space the hinds allow
Between the mule and ox, from plough to plough,
Clytonous sprung: he wing'd the rapid way,
And bore th' unrivall'd honours of the day.
With fierce embrace the brawny wrestlers join;
The conquest, great Euryalus, is thine.
Amphialus sprung forward with a bound,
Superior in the leap, a length of ground :
From Clatreus' strong arm the discus flies,
And sings with unmatch'd force along the skies,
And Laodam whirls high, with dreadful sway,
The gloves of death, victorious in the fray.

While thus the peerage in the games contends, In act to speak, Laodamas ascends:

[skill'd "O friends," he cries, "the stranger seems well To try th' illustrious labours of the field:

I deem him brave: then grant the brave man's Invite the hero to his share of fame. [claim, What nervous arms he boasts! how firm his tread l His limbs how turn'd! how broad his shoulders

spread:

By age unbroke!-but all-consuming care Destroys, perhaps, that strength that time would

spare:

Dire is the ocean, dread in all its forms! Man must decay, when man contends with storms."? "Well hast thou spoke," (Euryalus replies); "Thine is the guest, invite him thou to rise." Swift at the word, advancing from the crowd, He made obeisance, and thus spoke aloud :

"Vouchsafes the reverend stranger to display His mauly worth, and share the glorious day? Father, arise for thee thy port proclaims Expert to conquer in the solemn games, To fame arise for what more fame can yield Than the swift race, or conflict of the field? Steal from corroding care one transient day, To glory give the space thou hast to stay; Short is the time, and, lo! ev'n now the gales Call thee aboard, and stretch the swelling sails." To whom with sighs Ulysses gave reply: "Ah! why th' ill-suiting pastime must I try To gloomy care my thoughts alone are free; Ill the gay sports with troubled hearts agree: Sad from my natal hour my days have ran, A much-afflicted, much enduring man! Who suppliant to the king and peers implores A speedy voyage to his native shores."

Wide wanders, Laodam, thy erring tongue, The sports of glory to the brave belong," (Retorts Euryalus): "he boasts no claim Among the great, unlike the sons of fame. A wandering merchant he frequents the main; Some mean sea-farer in pursuit of gain; Studious of freight, in naval trade well skill'd, But dreads th' athletic labours of the field." Incens'd Ulysses with a frown replies. "O forward to proclaim thy soul unwise! With partial hands the gods their gifts dispense; Some greatly think, some speak with manly sense; Here Heaven an elegance of form denies, But wisdom the defect of form supplies: This man with energy of thought controls, And steals with modest violence our soul

He speaks reserv'dly, but he speaks with force,
Nor can one word be chang'd but for a worse;
In public more than mortal be appears,
And, as he moves. the gazing crowd reveres.
While others, beauteous as th' etherial kind,
The nobler portion want, a knowing mind.
Ja outward show Heaven gives thee to excel,
But Heaven denies the praise of thinking well.
Ill bear the brave a rude ungovern'd tongue,
And, youth, my generous soul resents the wrong :
Skill'd in heroic exercise, I claim

A post of honour with the sons of fame:
Such was my boast while vigour crown'd my days,
Now care surrounds me, and my force decays;
Inur'd a melancholy part to bear,

In scenes of death, by tempest and by war.
Yet, thus by woes impair'd, no more I wave
To prove the hero.-Slauder stings the brave."
Then, striding forward with a furious bound,
He wrench'd a rocky fragment from the ground.
By far more pon lerous, and more huge by far,
Than what Phæacia's sons discharg'd in air.
Fierce from his arm th' enormous load be flings,
Sonorous through the shaded air it sings;
Couch'd to the earth, tempestuous as it flies,
The crowd gaze upward while it cleaves the skies.
Beyond ali marks, with many a giddy round
Down rushing, it up-turns a hill of ground.

That instant Pallas, bursting from a cloud,
Fix'd a distinguish'd mark, and cry'd aloud!
"Ev'n he who sightless wants bis visual ray
May by his touch alone award the day:
Thy signal throw transcends the utmost hound
Of every champion by a length of ground.
Securely bid the strongest of the train
Arise to throw the strongest throws in vain."
She spoke; and momentary mounts the sky:
The friendly voice Ulysses hears with joy,
Then thus aloud, (elate with decent pride)
"Rise, ye Phracians, try your force," he cried;
"If with this throw the strongest caster vie,
Still, further still, I bid the discus fly,
Stand forth, ye champions, who the gauntlet wield,

Or

ye, the swiftest racers of the field!
Stand forth, ye wrestlers, who these pastimes grace,
I wield the gauntlet, and I run the race 1
In such heroic games I yield to none,
Or yield to brave Laodamas alone :
Shall I with brave Laodamas contend?
A friend is sacred, and I style him friend.
Ungenerous were the man, and base of heart,
Who takes the kind, and pays th' ungrateful part;
Chiefly the man, in foreign realms confin'd,
Base to his friend, to his own interest blind:
All, all your heroes I this day defy;

Give me a man that we our might may try.
Expert in every art, I boast the skill
To give the feather'd arrows wings to kill;
Should a whole host at once discharge the bow,
My well-aim'd shaft with death prevents the foe:
Alone superior in the field of Troy,
Great Philoctetes taught the shaft to fly.
From all the sons of Earth, unrivall'd praise
I justly claim; but yield to better days,
To those fam'd days when great Alcides rose,
And Eurytus, who bade the gods be foes:
(Vain Eurytus, whose art became his crime,
Swept from the Earth, he perish'd in his prime;
Sadden th' irremeable way he trod,
Who boldly durst defy the bowyer-god),

In fighting fields as far the spear I throw,
As flies an arrow from the well-drawn bow.
Sole in the race the contest I decline,
Stiff are my weary joints, and I resign;
By storms and hunger worn: age well may fail,
When storms and hunger both at once assail."
Abash'd, the numbers hear the godlike man,
Till great Alcinous mildly thus began: [tongue
"Well hast thou spoke, and well thy generous
With decent pride refutes a public wrong:
Warm are thy words, but warm without offence;
Fear only fools, secure in men of sense:
Thy worth is known. Then hear our country's
And bear to heroes our heroic fame; [claim,
In distant realms our glorious deeds display,
Repeat thein frequent in the genial day;
When blest with ease thy woes and wanderings end,
Teach them thy consort, bid thy sons attend!
How lov'd of Jove he crown'd our sires with praise,
How we their offspring dignify our race,

"Let other realms the deathful gauntlet wield,
Or boast the glories of th' athletic field;
We in the course unrivall'd speed display,
Or through cerulean billows plough the way;
To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight,
The feast or bath by day, and love by night:
Rise then, ye skill'd in measures; let him bear
Your fame to men that breathe a distant air:
And faithful say, to you the powers belong
To race, to sail, to dance, to chant the song.
"But, herald, to the palace swift repair,
And the soft lyre to grace our pastimes bear."

Swift at the word, obedient to the king, The herald flies the tuneful lyre to bring. Up rose nine seniors, chosen to survey The future games, the judges of the day. With instant care they mark a spacious round, And level for the dance th' allotted ground; The herald bears the lyre: intent to play, The bard advancing meditates the lay, Skill'd in the dance, tall youths, a blooming band, Graceful before the heavenly minstrel stand: Light-bounding from the earth, at once they rise, Their feet half viewless quiver in the skies: Ulysess gaz'd, astonish'd to survey

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The glancing splendours as their sandals play.
Meantime the bard, alternate to the strings,
The loves of Mars and Cytherea sings;
How the stern god, enamour'd with her charms,
Clasp'd the gay panting goddess in his arms,
By bribes seduc'd and how the Sun, whose eye
Views the broad Heavens, disclos'd the lawless joy.
Stung to the soul indignant through the skies
To his black forge vindictive Vulcan flies:
Arriv'd, his sinewy arms incessant place
Th' eternal anvil on the massy base.
A wondrous net he labours, to betray
The wanton lovers, as entwin'd they lay,
Indissolubly strong! Then instant bears
To his immortal dome the finish'd snares.
Above, below, around, with art dispread,
The sure enclosure folds the genial bed;
Whose texture ev'n the search of gods deceives,
Thin as the filmy threads the spider weaves.
Then, as withdrawing from the starry bowers,
He feigns a journey to the Lemnian shores,
His favourite isle! observant Mars descries
His wish'd recess, and to the goddess flies:
He glows, he burns: the fair-hair'd queen of love
Descends smooth gliding from the courts of Jove,

Gay blooming in full charms: her hand he prest With eager joy, and with a sigh addrest:

"Come, my belov'd, and taste the soft delights: Come, to repose the genial bed invites: Thy absent spouse, neglectful of thy charms, Prefers his barbarous Sintians to thy arms!" Then nothing loth, th' enamour'd fair he led, And sunk transported on the conscious bed. Down rush'd the toils, inwrapping as they lay The careless lovers in their wanton play : In vain they strive, th' entangling snares deny (Inextricably firm) the power to fly :

Warn'd by the god who sheds the golden day, Stern Vulcan homeward treads the starry way: Arriv'd, he sees, he grieves, with rage he burns: Full horrible he roars, his voice all Heaven returns:

"O Jove" he cry'd, “oh all ye powers above, See the lewd dalliance of the queen of love! Me, awkward me, she scorns; and yields her charms

To that fair lecher, the strong god of arms.
If I am lame, that stain my natal hour
By fate impos'd; such me my parent bore:
Why was I born? See how the wanton lies!
O sight tormenting to an husband's eyes!
But yet I trust, this once ev'n Mars would fly
His fair one's arms-he thinks her once, too, nigh.
But there remain, ye guilty, in my power,
Till Jove refunds his shameless daughter's dower.
Too dear I priz'd a fair enchanting face :
Beauty unchaste is beauty in disgrace."

Meanwhile the gods the dome of Vulcan
throng,

Apollo comes, and Neptune comes along ;
With these gay Hermes trod the starry plain;
But modesty withheld the goddess-train.
All Heaven beholds imprison'd as they lie,
And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the sky.
Then mutual, thus they spoke :
"Behold on

wrong
Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong!
Dwells there a god on all th' Olympian brow
More swift than Mars, and more than Vulcan slow?
Yet Vulcan conquers, and the god of arms
Must pay the penalty for lawless charms."

Thus serious they; but he who gilds the skies, The gay Apollo, thus to Hermes cries: "Would'st thou enchain'd like Mars, O Hermes, lie, And bear the shame, like Mars, to share the joy?”

"O envy'd shame!" (the smiling youth rejoin'd,) "Add thrice the chains, and thrice more firmly Gaze all ye gods, and every goddess gaze, [bind; Yet eager would I bless the sweet disgrace."

Loud laugh the rest, even Neptune laugh'd Yet sues importunate to loose the god: [aloud, "And free," he cries, "O Vulcan! free from shame Thy captives; I ensure the penal claim."

"Will Neptune" (Vulcan then) " the faithless He suffers who gives surety for th' unjust: [trust? But say, if that lewd scandal of the sky, To liberty restor'd, perfidious fly; Say, wilt thou bear the mulct?" He instant cries, "The mulct I bear, if Mars perfidious flies."

To whom appeas'd: "No more I urge delay; When Neptune sues, my part is to obey," Then to the snares his force the god applies; They burst; and Mars to Thrace indignant flies: To the soft Cyprian shores the goddess moves, To visit Paphos and her blooming groves;

Where to the power an hundred altars rise,
And breathing odours scent the balmy skies;
Conceal'd she bathes in consecrated bowers,
The Graces unguents shed, ambrosial showers,
Unguents that charm the gods ! she last assumes
Her wonderous robes; and full the goddess blooms.
Thus sung the bard: Ulysses hears with joy,
And loud applauses rend the vaulted sky.

Then to the sports his sons the king commands,
Each blooming youth before the monarch stands,
In dance unmatch'd! A wonderous ball is brought
(The work of Polypus, divinely wrought;)
This youth with strength enormous bids it fly,
And bending backward whirls it to the sky;
His brother, springing with an active bound,
At distance intercepts it from the ground:
The ball dismiss'd, in dance they skim the strand,
Turn and return, and scarce imprint the sand.
Th' assembly gazes with astonish'd eyes,
And sends in shouts applauses to the skies. [name
Then thus Ulysses! "Happy king, whose
The brightest shines in all the rolls of fame :
In subjects happy! with surprise I gaze!
Thy praise was just; their skill transcends thy
praise."

Pleas'd with his people's fame, the monarch hears, And thus benevolent accosts the peers: "Since Wisdom's sacred guidance he pursues, Give to the stranger guest a stranger's dues : Twelve princes in our realm dominion share O'er whom supreme, imperial power I bear : Bring gold, a pledge of love; a talent bring, A vest, a robe, and imitate your king: Be swift to give; that he this night may share The social feast of joy, with joy sincere. And thou, Euryalus, redeem thy wrong; A generous heart repairs a slanderous tongue.” Th' assenting peers, obedient to the king, In haste their heralds send the gifts to bring. Then thus Euryalus: "O prince, whose sway Rules this best realm, repentant I obey ! Be his this sword, whose blade of brass displays A ruddy gleam; whose hilt a silver blaze; Whose ivory sheath, inwrought with curious pride, Adds graceful terrour to the wearer's side."

He said; and to his hand the sword consign'd; "And if," he cry'd, my words affect thy mind, Far from thy mind those words, ye whirlwinds, bear, And scatter them, ye storms, in empty air: Crown, O ye Heavens! with joy his peaceful hours,

And grant him to his spouse and native shores!"

"And blest be thou, my friend," Ulysses cries: "Crown him with every joy, ye favouring skies: To thy calm hours continued peace afford, And never, never mayst thou want this sword!”

He said; and o'er his shoulder slung the blade, Now o'er the earth ascends the evening shade: The precious gifts th' illustrious heralds bear, And to the court th' embody'd peers repair. Before the queen Alcinous' sons unfold The vests, the robes, and heaps of shining gold; Then to the radiant thrones they move in state: Aloft, the king in pomp imperial sat.

Then to the queen: "O partner of our reign, O sole belov'd! command thy menial train A polish'd chest and stately robes to bear, And healing waters for the bath prepare: That, bath'd, our guest may bid his sorrows cease, Hear the sweet song, and taste the feast in peace,

A bowl that flames with gold, of wondrous frame,
Ourself we give, memorial of our name :
To raise in offerings to almighty Jove,
And every god that treads the courts above."
Instant the queen, observant of the king,
Commands her train a spacious vase to bring,
The spacious vase with ample stream, suffice,
Heap high the wood, and bid the flames arise.
The flames climb round it with a fierce embrace,
The fuming waters bubble o'er the blaze.
Herself the chest prepares: in order roll'd
The robes, the vests are rang'd, and heaps of gold:
And adding a rich dress inwrought with art,
A gift expressive of her bounteous heart,
Thus spoke to Ithacus: "To guard with bands
Insolvable these gifts, thy care demands:
Lest, in thy slumbers on the watery main,
The hand of rapine make our bounty vain."
Then bending with full force, around he roll'd
A labyrinth of bands in fold on fold,
Clos'd with Circæan art. A train attends
Around the bath: the bath the king ascends
(Untasted joy, since that disastrous hour
He sail'd ill-fated from Calypso's bower :)
Where, happy as the gods that range the sky,
He feasted every sense with every joy.
He bathes; the damsels, with officious toil,
Shed sweets, shed unguents, in a shower of oil:
Then o'er his limbs a gorgeous robe he spreads,
And to the feast magnificently treads:
Full where the dome its shining valves expands,
Nausicaa blooming as a goddess stands,
With wondering eyes the hero she survey'd,
And graceful thus began the royal maid:

"Hail, godlike stranger! and when Heaven

restores

To thy fond wish thy long-expected shores,
This ever-grateful in remembrance bear,
To me thou ow'st, to me, the vital air."

"O royal maid!" Ulysses straight returns,
"Whose worth the splendours of thy race adorns,
So may dread Jove (whose arm in vengeance
forms

storms,)

The writhen bolt, and blackens Heaven with
Restore me safe, through weary wanderings tost,
To my dear country's ever-pleasing coast,
As, while the spirit in this bosom glows,
To thee, my goddess, I address my vows:
My life, thy gift I boast!" He said, and sat
Fast by Alcinous on a throne of state.

Now each partakes the feast, the wine prepares,
Portions the food, and each his portion shares.
The bard an herald guides: the gazing throng
Pay low obeisance as he moves along :
Beneath a sculptur'd arch he sits enthron'd,
The peers encircling form an awful round.
Then, from the chine, Ulysses carves with art
Delicious food, an honorary part;
"This, let the master of the lyre receive,
A pledge of love! 'tis all a wretch can give.
Lives there a man beneath the spacious skies,
Who sacred honours to the bard denies ?
The Muse the bard inspires, exalts his mind;
The Muse indulgent loves th' harmonious kind."
The herald to his hand the charge conveys,
Not fond of flattery, nor unpleas'd with praise,
When now the rage of hunger was allay'd,
Thus to the lyrist wise Ulysses said:

For who, by Phoebus uninform'd could know
The woe of Greece, and sing so well the woe?
Just to the tale, as present at the fray,

Or taught the labours of the dreadful day!
The song recalls past horrours to my eyes,
And bids proud llion from her ashes rise.
Once more harmonious strike the sounding string,
Th' Epaan fabric, fram'd by Pallas, sing:
How stern Ulysses, furious to destroy,
With latent heroes sack'd'imperial Troy.
If faithful thou record the tale of fame,
The god himself inspires thy breast with flame:
And mine shall be the task, henceforth to raise
In every land, thy monument of praise.
Full of the god, he rais'd his lofty strain,
How the Greeks rush'd tumultuous to the main :
How blazing tents illumin'd half the skies,
While from the shores the winged navy flies:
How ev'n in Ilion's walls, in deathful bands,
Came the stern Greeks by Troy's assisting hands:
All Troy up-heav'd the steed; of differing mind,
Various the Trojans counsell'd; part consign'd
The monster to the sword, part sentence gave
To plunge it headlong in the whelming wave;
Th' unwise prevail, they lodge it in the towers,
An offering sacred to th' immortal powers:
Th' unwise award to lodge it in the walls,
And by the gods' decree proud Ilion falls;
Destruction enters in the treacherous wood,
And vengeful slaughter, fierce for human blood.
He sung the Greeks stern issuing from the steed,
How Ilion burns, how all her fathers bleed:
How to thy dome, Deiphobus! ascends
The Spartan king: how Ithacus attends
(Horrid as Mars,) and how with dire alarms
He fights, subdues for Pallas strings his arms.
Thus while he sung, Ulysses' griefs renew,
Tears bathe his cheeks, and tears the ground
As some fond matron views in mortal fight [bedew :
Her husband falling in his country's right:
Frantic through clashing swords she runs, she flies,
As ghastly pale he groans, and faints, and dies;
Close to his breast she grovels on the ground,
And bathes with floods of tears the gaping wound;
She cries, she shrieks; the fierce insulting foe
Relentless mock her violence of woe:
To chains condemn'd, as wildly she deplores;
A widow, and a slave on foreign shores.

"Oh more than man! thy soul the Muse inspires, Or Phoebus animates with all his fires:

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:

So from the sluices of Ulysses' eyes
Fast fell the tears, and sighs succeeded sighs:
Conceal'd he griev'd: the king observ'd alone
The silent tear, and heard the secret groan:
Then to the bard aloud: "O cease to sing,
Dumb be thy voice, and mute the tuneful string:"
To every note his tears responsive flow,
And his great heart heaves with tumultuous woe:
Thy lay too deeply moves: then cease the lay,
And o'er the banquet every heart be gay:
This social right demands: for him the sails,
Floating in air, invite th' impelling gales:
His are the gifts of love: the wise and good
Receive the stranger as a brother's blood.

"But, friend, discover faithful what I crave,
Artful concealment ill becomes the brave:
Say what thy birth, and what the name you bore,
Impos'd by parents in the natal hour?
(For from the natal hour distinctive names,
One common right, the great and lowly claims :)
Say from what city, from what regions tost,
And what inhabitants those regions boast?

So shalt thou instant reach the realms assign'd,
In wondrous ships self-mov'd, instinct with mind;
No helm secures their course, no pilot guides,
Like man intelligent, they plough the tides,
Conscious of every coast and every bay,
That lies beneath the Sun's all-seeing ray;
Though clouds and darknes veil th' encumber'd sky,
Fearless through darkness and through clouds
they fly:

Though tempests rage, though rolls the swelling main,

The seas may roll, the tempest rage in vain;
Ev'n the stern god, that o'er the waves presides,
Safe as they pass, and safe repass the tides,
With fury burns; while careless they convey
Promiscuous every guest to every bay.
These ears have heard my royal sire disclose
A dreadful story big with future woes,
How Neptune ra'd, and how, by his command,
Firm rooted in a surge a ship should stand
A monument of wrath: how mound on mound
Should bury these proud towers beneath the ground.
But this the gods may frustrate or fulfil,
As suits the purpose of th' eternal will.

But say through what waste regions hast thou stray'd,

What customs noted, and what coasts survey'd;
Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms,
Or men, whose bosom tender pity warms?
Say why the fate of Troy awak'd thy cares,
Why heav'd thy bosom, and why flow'd thy tears?
Just are the ways of Heaven: from Heaven proceed
The woes of man; Heaven doom'd the Greeks to
bleed;

A theme of future song! Say then if slain
Some dear lov'd brother press'd the Phrygian plain?
Or bled some friend, who bore a brother's part,
And claim'd by merit, not by blood, the heart?"

THE ODYSSEY,

BOOK IX,

ARGUMENT.

THE ADVENTURES OF THE CICONS, LOTOPHAGI, AND CYCLors.

ULYSSES begins the relation of his adventures; how, after the destruction of Troy, he with his companions made an incursion on the Cicons, by by whom they were repulsed; and meeting with a storm, were driven to the coast of the Lotophagi. From thence they sailed to the land of the Cyclops, whose manners and situation are particularly characterised. The giant Polyphemus and his cave described; the usage Ulysses and his companions met with there; and lastly, the method and artifice by which he escaped.

THEN thus Ulysses: "Thou, whom first in sway,
As first in virtue, these thy realms obey;
How sweet the products of a peaceful reign!
The heaven-taught poet, and enchanting strain;
The well-fill'd palace, the perpetual feast,
A land rejoicing, and a people blest!

How goodly seems it ever to employ
Man's social days in union and in joy;
The plenteous board high heap'd with cates divine,
And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine!
"Admit these joys, why seeks thy mind to
know

Th' unhappy series of a wanderer's woe;
Remembrance sad, whose image to review,
Alas! must open all my wounds anew!
And, oh what first what last shall I relate,
Of woes unnumber'd sent by Heaven and fate?
"Know first the man (though now a wretch

distrest)

Who hopes thee, monarch, for his future guest.
Behold Ulysses! no ignoble name,
[fame.
Earth sounds my wisdom, and high Heaven my

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My native soil is Ithaca the fair,
Where high Neritus waves his woods in air:
Dulichium, Samè, and Zacynthus crown'd
With shady mountains, spread their isles around
(These to the north and night's dark regions run,
Those to Aurora and the rising Sun).

Low lies our isle, yet blest in fruitful stores;
Strong are her sons, though rocky are her shores;
And none, ah! none so lovely to my sight,
Of all the lands that Heaven o'erspreads with
light!

In vain Calypso long constrain'd my stay,
With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay;
With all her charms as vainly Circe strove,
And added magic, to secure my love,
In pomps or joys, the palace or the grot,
My country's image never was forgot,
My absent parents rose before my sight,
And distant lay contentment and delight.

"Hear then the woes which mighty Jove ordain'd

To wait my passage from the Trojan land.
The winds froin Ilion to the Cicons' shore,
Beneath cold Ismarus our vessels bore.

We boldly landed on the hostile place,

And sack'd the city, and destroy'd the race,

Their wives made captive, their possessions shar'd, And every soldier found a like reward.

I then advis'd to fly; not so the rest,

Who stay'd to revel and prolong the feast:

The fatted sheep and sable bulls they slay,
And bowls flow round, and riot wastes the day,
Meantime the Cicons to their holds retir'd,
Call on the Cicons with new fury fir'd;
With early morn the gather'd country swarms
And all the continent is bright, with arms;
Thick as the budding leaves or rising flowers
O'erspread the land, when spring descends in

showers:

All expert soldiers, skill'd on foot to dare,
Or from the bounding courser urge the war.
Now fortune changes (so the Fates ordain);
Our hour was come to taste our share of pain.
Close at the ships the bloody fight began,
Wounded they wound, and man expires on man.
Long as the morning Sun increasing bright
O'er Heaven's pure azure spread the growing
light,

Promiscuous death the form of war confounds,
Each adverse battle gor'd with equal wounds :
But when his evening wheels o'erhung the main,
Then conquest crown'd the fierce Ciconian train
Six brave companions from each ship we lost,
The rest escape in haste, and quit the coast.

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