With rapture oft the verge of Greece reviews,
And the dear turf with tears of joy bedews
Him thus exulting on the distant strand,
A spy distinguish'd from his airy stand;
To bribe whose vigilance, Ægysthus told

THE ODYSSEY.

A mighty sum of ill-persuading gold:
There watch'd this guardian of his guilty fear,
Till the twelfth moon had wheel'd her pale career.
And now, admonish'd by his eye, to court
With terror wing'd conveys the dread report.
Of deathful arts expert, his lord employs
The ministers of blood in 'dark surprise;
And twenty youths in radiant mail incased,
Close ambush'd nigh the spacious hall he placed.
Then bids prepare the hospitable treat:
Vain shows of love to veil his felon-hate!
To grace the victor's welcome from the wars
A train of coursers, and triumphal cars
Magnificent he leads: the royal guest,
Thoughtless of ill, accepts the fraudful feast.
The troop forth-issuing from the dark recess,
With homicidal rage the king oppress.
So, whilst he feeds luxurious in the stall,
The sovereign of the herd is doom'd to fall.
The partners of his fame and toils at Troy,
Around their lord, a mighty ruin! lie:
Mix'd with the brave, the base invaders bleed;
Egysthus sole survives to boast the deed.

He said; chill horrors shook my shivering soul,
Rack'd with convulsive pangs in dust I roll;
And hate, in madness of extreme despair,
To view the sun, or breathe the vital air.
But when, superior to the rage of woe,.

I stood restored, and tears bad ceased to flow;
Lenient of grief, the pitying god began-
Forget the brother, and resume the man:
To Fate's supreme dispose the dead resign,

That care be Fate's, a speedy passage thine.

Then, steering backward from the Pharian isle,
We gain the stream of Jove-descended Nile:
There quit the ships, and on the destined shore
700 With ritual hecatombs the gods adore:
Their wrath atoned, to Agamemnon's name
A cenotaph I raise of deathless fame.
These rites to piety and grief discharged,
The friendly gods a springing gale enlarged:
The fleet swift tilting o'er the surges flew
Till Grecian cliffs appear'd, a blissful view!
Thy patient ear hath heard me long relate
A story, fruitful of disastrous fate :
And now, young prince, indulge my fond request ·
710 Be Sparta honour'd with his royal guest,

705

Till, from his eastern goal, the joyous sun
His twelfth diurnial race begins to run.
Meantime my train the friendly gifts prepare,
Three sprightly coursers, and a polish'd car:
715 With these, a goblet of capacious mould,
Figured with art to dignify the gold
(Formed for libation to the gods,) shall prove
A pledge and monument of sacred love.
My quick return, young Ithacus rejoin'd,

720 Damps the warm wishes of my raptured mind:
Did not my fate my needful haste constrain,
Charmed by your speech so graceful and humane,
Lost in delight the circling year would roll,
While deep attention fix'd my listening soul.

725 But now to Pyle perinit my destined way,
My loved associates chide my long delay':
In dear remembrance of your royal grace,
I take the present of the promised vase;
The coursers, for the champaign sports, retain ;
730 That gift our barren rocks will render vain :
Horrid with cliffs, our meagre land allows
Thin herbage for the mountain goat to browse,
But neither mead nor plain supplies, to feed
The sprightly courser, or indulge his speed:
To sea-surrounded realms the gods assign
Sinall tract of fertile lawn, the least to mine.
His hand the king with tender passion press'd,
And, smiling, thus the royal youth address'd:
O early worth! a soul so wise, and young,
Proclaims you from the sage Ulysses sprung
Selected from my stores, of matchless price
An urn shall recompense your prudent choice
Not mean the massy mould of silver, graced
By Vulcan's art, the verge with gold enchased;
745 A pledge the scepter'd power of Sidon gave,
When to his realm I plough'd the orient wave.

736

Still lives the wretch who wrought the death deplored,
But lives a victim for thy vengeful sword;
Unless with filial rage Orestes glow

And swift prevent the meditated blow:
You timely will return a welcome guest,
With him to share the sad funereal feast.

He said: new thoughts my beating heart employ,
My gloomy soul receives a gleam of joy
Fair hope revives; and eager I addrest
The prescient godhead to reveal the rest.

The doom decreed of those disastrous two

I've heard with pain, but, oh! the tale pursue;
What third brave son of Mars the Fates constrain
To roam the howling desert of the main;
Or, in eternal shade if cold he lies,

Provoke new sorrows from these grateful eyes.
That chief (rejoin'd the god) his race derives
From Ithaca, and wondrous woes survives;
Laërtes' son: girt with circumfluous tides,
He still calamitous constraint abides.
Him in Calypso's cave of late I view'd,
When streaming grief his faded cheek bedew'd.
But vain his prayer, his arts are vain, to move
The enamour'd goddess, or elude her love:
His vessel sunk, and dear companions lost,
He lives reluctant on a foreign coast.
But oh, beloved by heaven! reserved to thee
A happier lot the smiling Fates decree:
Free from that law, beneath whose mortal sway
Matter is changed, and varying forms decay;
Elysium shall be thine; the blissful plains
Of utmost earth, where Rhadmanthus reigns.
Joys ever young, unmix'd with pain or fear,
Fill the wide circle of the eternal year:
Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime :
The fields are florid with unfading prime;
From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow;
But from the breezy deep the blest inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.

This grace peculiar will the gods afford

To thee, the son of Jove, and beauteous Helen's lord.
He ceased, and plunging in the vast profound,
Beneath the god the whirling billows bound.
Then speeding back, involved in various thought,
My friends attending at the shore I sought.
Arrived, the rage of hunger we control,
Till night with silent shade invests the pole ;
Then lose the cares of life in pleasing rest.-
Soon as the morn reveals the roseat east,
With sails we wing the masts, our anchors weigh,
Unmoor the fleet, and rush into the sea.
Ranged on the banks, beneath our equal oars
White curl the waves, and the vex'd ocean roars.

740

Thus they alternate; while with artful care
The menial train the regal feast prepare:
The firstlings of the flock are doom'd to die;
750 Rich fragrant wines the cheering bowl supply;
A female band the gift of Cares bring:
And the gilt roofs with genial triumph ring.
Meanwhile, in Ithaca, the suitor powers
In active games divide their jovial hours:

755 In areas varied with mosaic art,

Some whirl the disk, and some the javelin dart.
Aside, sequester'd from the vast resort,
Antinous sate spectator of the sport;
With great Eurymachus, of worth confess'd,

260

760 And high descent, superior to the rest;
Whom young Noëmon lowly thus address'd.
My ship, equipp'd within the neighbouring port,
The prince, departing for the Pylian court,
Requested for his speed; but, courteous, say
765 When steers he hoine, or why this long delay?
For Elis I should sail with utmost speed,
To import twelve mares which there luxurious feed,
And twelve young mules, a strong laborious race,
New to the plough, unpractised in the trace.

855

860

770

Unknowing of the course to Pyle design'd,

775

780

A sudden horror seized on either mind:
The prince in rural bower they fondly thought,
Numbering his flocks and herds, not far remote.
Relate, Antinous cries, devoid of guile,
When spread the prince his sail for distant Pyle?
Did chosen chiefs across the gulfy main
Attend his voyage, or domestic train?
Spontaneous did you speed his secret course,
Or was the vessel seized by fraud or force?
With willing duty, not reluctant mind
(Noëmon cried,) the vessel was resign'd,
Who, in the balance, with the great affairs
Of courts, presume to weigh their private cares?
With him, the peerage next in power to you:

865

870

875

785 And Mentor, captain of the lordly crew,
Or some celestial in his reverend form,
Safe from the secret rock and adverse storm,

880

885

Bid Dolius quick attend, the faithful slave
Whom to my nuptial train Icarius gave,
To tend the fruit-groves; with incessant speed
He shall this violence of death decreed
To good Laërtes tell. Experienced age
May timely intercept the ruffian rage.
Convene the tribes, the murderous plot reveal,
And to their power to save his race appeal,
Then Euryclea thus. My dearest dread!
Though to the sword I bow this hoary head,
690 Or if a dungeon be the pain decreed,

975

980

Pilots the course: for when the glimmering ray
Of yester dawn disclosed the tender day,
Mentor himself I saw, and much admired.
Then ceased the youth, and from the court retired.
Confounded and appall'd, the unfinish'd game
The suitors quit, and all to council came.
Antinous first the assembled peers address'd,
Rage sparkling in his eyes, and burning in his breast.
O shame to manhood! shall one daring boy
The scheme of all our happiness destroy?
Fly unperceived, seducing half the flower
Of nobles, and invite a foreign power?
The ponderous engine raised to crush us all,
Recoiling, on his head is sure to fall.
Instant prepare me, on the neighbouring strand,
With twenty chosen mates a vessel mann'd;
For ambush'd close beneath the Samian shore
His ship returning shall my spies explore:
He soon his rashness shall with life atone,

eek for his father's fate, but find his own.
With vast applause the sentence all approve;
Then rise, and to the feastful hall remove:
Swift to the queen the herald Medon ran,
Who heard the consult of the dire divan:
Before her dome the royal matron stands,
And thus the message of his haste demands.

What will the suitors? must my servant-train
The allotted labours of the day refrain,
For them to form some exquisite repast?
Heaven grant this festival may prove their last !
Or, if they still must live, from me remove
The double plague of luxury and love!
Forbear, ye sons of insolence! forbear,
In riot to consume a wretched heir.

In the young soul illustrious thought to raise,
Were ye not tutor'd with Ulysses' praise?
Have not your fathers oft my lord defined,
Gentle of speech, beneficent of mind?
Some kings with arbitrary rage devour,
Or in their tyrant-minions vest the power:
Ulysses let no partial favours fall,
The people's parent, he protected all :
But absent now, perfidious and ingrate!
His stores ye ravage, and usurp his state.

He thus: O were the woes you speak the worst!
They form a deed more odious and accurst;
More dreadful than your boding soul divines:
But pitying Jove avert the dire designs!
The darling object of your royal care
Is mark'd to perish in a deathful snare;
Before he anchors in his native port,
From Pyle re-sailing and the Spartan court;
Horrid to speak! in ambush is decreed
The hope and heir of Ithaca to bleed!

Sudden she sunk beneath the weighty woes,
The vital streams a chilling horror froze;
The big round tear stands trembling in her eye,
And on her tongue imperfect accents die.
At length, in tender language interwove
With sighs, she thus express'd her anxious love:
Why rashly would my son his fate explore,
Ride the wild waves, and quit the safer shore?
Did he, with all the greatly wretched, crave
A blank oblivion, and untimely grave?

Tis not, replied the sage, to Medon given

To know, if some inhabitant of heaven

In his young breast the daring thought inspired!
Or if, alone with filial duty fired,

The winds and waves he tempts in early bloom,
Studious to learn his absent father's doom.
The sage retired: unable to control
The mighty griefs that swell her labouring soul,
Rolling convulsive on the floor, is seen
The piteous object of a prostrate queen.
Words to her dumb complaint a pause supplies,
And breath, to waste in unavailing cries.
Around their sovereign wept the menial fair,
To whom she thus address'd her deep despair.
Behold a wretch whom all the gods consign
To woe! Did ever sorrows equal mine?
Long to my joys my dearest lord is lost,
His country's buckler, and the Grecian boast:
Now from my fond embrace, by tempests torn,
Our other column of the state is borne;
Nor took a kind adieu, nor sought consent!-
Unkind confederates in his dire intent!
Ill suits it with your shows of duteous zeal,
. Froni me the purposed voyage to conceal :
Though at the solemn midnight hour he rose,
Why did you fear to trouble my repose?
He either had obey'd my fond desire,
Or seen his mother pierced with grief expire.

I own me concious of the unpleasing deed:
Auxiliar to his flight, my aid implored,
With wine and viands I the vessel stored:
A solemn oath, imposed, the secret seal'd,

895 Till the twelfth dawn the light of heaven reveal'd.
Dreading the effect of a fond mother's fear,
He dared not violate your royal ear.
But bathe, and, in imperial robes array'd,
Pay due devotions to the martial maid,*

985

990

900 And rest affianced in her guardian aid.
Send not to good Laërtes, nor engage
In toils of state the miseries of age:
Tis impious to surmise, the powers divine
To ruin doom the Jove-descended line:
905 Long shall the race of just Arcesius reign,
And isles remote enlarge his old domain.
The queen her speech with calm attention hears,
Her eyes restrain the silver-streaming tears:
She bathes, and, robed, the sacred dome ascends;
910 Her pious speed a female train attends:
The salted cakes in canisters are laid,
And thus the queen invokes Minerva's aid.
Daughter divine of Jove, whose arm can wield
The avenging bolt, and shake the dreadful shield

995

1000

1005

915 If e'er Ulysses to thy fane preferr'd

The best and choicest of his flock and herd,
Hear, goddess, hear, by those oblations won;
And for the pious sire preserve the son:
His wish'd return with happy power befriend,
920 And on the suitors let thy wrath descend.

1010

925

She ceased; shrill ecstacies of joy declare
The favouring goddess present to the prayer:
The suitors heard, and deem'd the mirthful voice
A signal of her hymeneal choice:
Whilst one most jovial thus accosts the board:
"Too late the queen selects a second lord;
"In evil hour the nuptial rite intends,
"When o'er her son disastrous death impends.
Thus he unskill'd of what the fates provide!
930 But with severe rebuke Antinoüs cried.

1016

1020

The desperate crew ascend, unfurl the sails
(The seaward prow invites the tardy gales ;)
Then take repast, till Hesperus display'd
His golden circlet in the western shade.
Meantime the queen, without refection due,
Heart-wounded, to the bed of state withdrew:
In her sad breast the prince's fortunes roll,
And hope and doubt alternate seize ber soul.
So when the woodman's toil her cave surrounds,
950 And with the hunter's cry the grove resounds;
With grief and rage the mother-lion stung,
Fearless herself, yet trembles for her young.
While pensive in the silent slumberous shade,
Sleep's gentle powers her drooping eyes invade;

955 Minerva, life-like, on embodied air

Impress'd the form of Iphthima the fair
(Icarius' daughter she, whose blooming charms
Allured Eumelus to her virgin arms;
A scepter'd lord, who o'er the fruitful plain
960 Of Thessaly, wide stretch'd his ample reign:)
As Pallas will'd, along the sable skies,
To calm the queen, the phantom-sister flies.
Swift on the regal dome, descending right,
The bolted valves are pervious to her flight.
965 Close to her head the pleasing vision stands,
And thus performs Minerva's high commands.
O why, Penelope, this causeless fear,
To render sleep's soft blessing unsincere ?

1035

1040

1015

1050

1055

1000

Alike devote to sorrow's dire extreme
The day-reflection, and the midnight-dream!
Thy son the gods propitious will restore,
And bid thee cease his absence to deplore.

Let kings no more with gentle mercy sway
Or bless a people willing to obey,

But crush the nations with an iron rod,
And every monarch be the scourge of God!

To whom the queen (whilst yet her pensive mind 1065 If from your thoughts Ulysses you remove,

Was in the silent gates of sleep confined :)

O sister, to my soul for ever dear,

Why this first visit to reprove my fear?

How in a realm so distant should you know

Who ruled his subjects with a father's love.
Sole in an isle, encircled with the main,
Abandon'd, banish'd from his native reign,
Unbless'd he sighs, detain'd by lawless charms,

From what deep source my ceaseless sorrows flow! 1070 And press'd unwilling in Calypso's arms.
To all my hope my royal lord is lost,

His country's buckler, and the Grecian boast:
And, with consummate woe to weigh me down,
The heir of all his honours and his crown,
My darling son is fled! an easy prey

To the fierce storms, or inen more fierce than they;
Who, in a league of blood associates sworn,
Will intercept the unwary youth's return.

Courage resume, the shadowy form replied,
la the protecting care of heaven confide:
On him attends the blue-eyed martial maid;
What earthly can implore a surer aid?
Me now the guardian goddess deignsto send,
To bid thee patient his return attend.

The queen replies: If in the bless'd abodes,
A goddess, thou hast commerce with the gods;
Say breathes my lord the blissful realm of light,
Or lies he wrapp'd in ever-during night?

Inquire not all his doom, the phantom cries,
I speak not of the counsel of the skies:
Nor must indulge with vain discourse, or long,
The windy satisfaction of the tongue.

Swift through the valves the visionary fair
Repass'd, and viewless mix'd with common air
The queen awakes deliver'd of her woes;
With florid joy her heart dilating glows:
The vision manifest of future fate,
Makes her with hope her son's arrival wait.
Meantime the suitors plough the watry plain,
Telemachus in thought already slain!
When sight of lessening Ithaca was lost.
Their sail directed for the Samian coast,
A small but verdant isle appear'd in view
And Asteris the advancing Pilot knew:
An ample port the rocks projected form,
To break the rolling waves and ruffling storm:
That safe recess they gain with happy speed,
And in close ambush wait the murderous deed.

1075

1085

Nor friends are there, nor vessels to convey,
Nor oars to cut the immeasurable way.
And now fierce traitors, studious to destroy
His only son, their ambush'd fraud employ;
Who, pious, following his great father's fame,
To sacred Pylos and to Sparta came.

What words are these? (replied the power who forms
The clouds of night, and darkens heaven with storms ;)
Is not already in thy soul decreed,

1089 The chief's return shall make the guilty bleed?
What cannot Wisdom do? Thou may'st restore
The son in safety to his native shore:
While the fell foes, who late in ambush lay,
With fraud defeated measure back their way.
Then thus to Hermes the command was given,
Hermes, thou chosen messenger of heaven!
Go, to the nymph be these our orders borne;
Tis Jove's decree, Ulysses shall return:
The patient man shall view his old abodes,
1090 Nor help'd by mortal hand, nor guiding gods:
In twice ten days shall fertile Scheria find,
Alone, and floating to the wave and wind.
The bold Phæacians there, whose haughty line
Is mix'd with gods, half human, half divine,

1005 The chief shall honour as some heavenly guest,
And swift transport him to his place of rest.
His vessels loaded with a plenteous store
Of brass, of vestures, and resplendent ore
(A richer prize than if his joyful isle

1100 Received him charged with Ilion's noble spoil,)
His friends, his country, he shall see, though late;
Such is our sovereign will, and such is fate.

35

40

45

50

55

He spoke. The god who mounts the winged winds Fast to his feet the golden pinions binds,

1105 That high through fields of air his flight sustain
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the boundless main.;
He grasps the wand that causes sleep to fly,"
Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye:
Then shoots from heaven to high Pieria's steep
And stoops incumbent on the rolling deep.
So watry fowl, that seek their fishy food,
With wings expanded o'er the foaming flood,
Now sailing smooth the level surface sweep,
Now dip their pinions in the briny deep.
Thus o'er the world of waters Hermes flew,
Till now the distant island rose in view:
Then, swift ascending from the azure wave,
He took the path that winded to the cave.
Large was the grot, in which the nymph he found,
(The fair-hair'd nymph with every beauty crown'd.,
She sate and sung; the rocks resound her lays :
The cave was brighten'd with a rising blaze:
Cedar and frankincense, an odorous pile,
Flamed on the hearth, and wide perfumed the isle.
While she with work and song the time divides,
And through the loom the golden shuttle guides.
Without the grot a various sylvan scene
Appear'd around, and groves of living green;
Poplars and alders ever quivering play'd,
And nodding cypress form'd a fragrant shade
On whose high branches, waving with the storm,
The birds of broadest wing their mansions form,
The chough, the sea-mew, the loquacious crow,
And scream aloft, and skim the deeps below.
Depending vines the shelving cavern screen,
With purple clusters blushing through the green.
Four limpid fountains from the clefts distil;
And every fountain pours a several rill,
In mazy windings wandering down the hill

The departure of Ulysses from Calypso, Pallas in a council of the gods complains of the detention of Ulysses in the island of Calypso; whereupon Mercury is sent to command his removal. The seat of Calypso described. She consents with much difficulty; and Ulysses builds a vessel with his own hands, on which he embarks. Neptune overtakes him with a terrible tempest, in which he is shipwrecked, and in the last danger of death; till Leucothea, a sea-goddess, assists him and after innumerable perils, he gets ashore at

Phæacia.

A scene, where if a god should cast his sight,
A god might gaze, and wander with delight!
Joy touch'd the messenger of heaven: he stay'd
Entranced, and all the blissful haunts survey'à.
Him, etering in the cave, Calypso knew;
For powers celestial to each other's view
Stand still confess'd, though distant far they li
To habitants of earth, or sea, or sky.

95

200

But sad Ulysses, by himself apart,

Pour'd the big sorrows of his swelling heart

All on the lonely shore he sate to weep,
And roll'd his eyes around the restless deep;
Toward his loved coast he roll'd his eyes in vain,
Till, dimm'd with rising grief, they stream'd again.
Now graceful seated on her shining throne,
To Hermes thus the nymph divine begun :
God of the golden wand! on what behest
Arrivest thou here, an unexpected guest?
Loved as thon art, thy free injunctions lay;
"Tis mine, with joy and duty to obey.
Till now a stranger, in a happy hour
Approach, and taste the dainties of my bower.

Thus having spoke, the nymph the table spread
(Ambrosial cates, with nectar rosy-red ;)
Hermes the hospitable rite partook,
Divine refection! then, recruited, spoke :

What moved this journey from my native sky,
A goddess asks, nor can a god deny:
Hear then the truth. By mighty Jove's command
Unwilling have I trod this pleasing land;

For who, self-moved, with weary wing would sweep
Such length of ocean and unmeasured deep:
A world of waters! far from all the ways
Where men frequent, or sacred altars blaze?
But to Jove's will submission we must pay:
What power so great, to dare to disobey?
A man, he says, a man resides with thee,
Of all his kind most worn with misery;

125

No more in sorrows languish life away:
Free as the winds I give thee now to rove-
Go, fell the timber of yon lofty grove,
And form a raft, and build the rising ship,

210

135

140

120 Sublime to bear thee o'er the gloomy deep.
To store the vessel let the care be mine,
With water from the rock, and rosy wine,
And life-sustaining bread, and fair array,
And prosperous gales to waft thee on the way.
These, if the gods with my desires comply,
(The gods, alas, more mighty far than 1,
And better skill'd in dark events to come,)
In peace shall land thee at thy native home.
With sighs Ulysses heard the words she spoke,
130 Then thus his melancholy silence broke.
Some other motive, goddess! sways thy mind
(Some close design, or turn of womankind,)
Nor my return the end, nor this the way,
On a slight raft to pass the swelling sea,
Huge, horrid, vast! where scarce in safety sails
The best-built ship, though Jove inspire the gales.
The bold proposal how shall I fulfil,
Dark as I am, unconscious of thy will?
Swear then thou mean'st not what my soul forebodes;
Swear by the solemn oath that binds the gods.

215

220

225

230

The Greeks, (whose arms for nine long years employ'd
Their force on Ilion, in the tenth destroy'd)
At length embarking in a luckless hour,
With conquest proud, incensed Minerva's power:
Hence on the guilty race her vengeance hurl'd
With storms pursued them through the liquid world.
There all his vessels sunk beneath the wave!
There all his dear companions found their grave!
Saved from the jaws of death by heaven's decree,
The tempest drove him to these shores and thee.
Him, Jove now orders to his native lands
Straight to dismiss; so destiny commands:
Impatient fate his near return attends,
And calls him to his country, and his friends.

Even to her inmost soul the goddess shook ;
Then thus her anguish and her passion broke.
Ungracious gods! with spite and envy curst!
Still to your own ethereal race the worst!
Ye envy mortal and immortal joy,
And love, the only sweet of life, destroy.
Did ever goddess by her charms engage
A favour'd mortal, and not feel your rage?
So when Aurora sought Orion's love,
Her joys disturb'd your blissful hours above,
Till, in Ortygia, Dian's winged dart
Had pierced the hapless hunter to the heart.
So when the covert of the thrice-ear'd field

Saw stately Ceres to her passion yield,

Scarce could Iäsion taste her heavenly charms,

But Jove's swift lightning scorch'd him in her arms,

Am I the envy of your blissful bowers?

And is it now my turn, ye mighty powers!

A man, an outcast to the storin and wave,

It was my crime to pity, and to save;

Him, while he spoke, with smiles Calypso eyed,
And gently grasp'd his hand, and thus replied:
This shews thee, friend, by old experience taught,
And learn'd in all the wiles of human thought.
145 How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!
But hear, oh earth, and hear, ye sacred skies!
And thou, oh Styx! whose formidable floods

155

235

Glide through the shades, and bind the attesting gods! 240
No form'd design, no meditated end,

150 Lurks in the counsel of thy faithful friend;
Kind the persuasion, and sincere my aim;
The same my practice, were my fate the same.
Heaven has not curst me with a heart of steel,
But given the sense, to pity, and to feel.
Thus having said, the goddess march'd before:
He trod her footsteps in the sandy shore.
At the cool cave arrived, they took their state:
He fill'd the throne where Mercury had sate.
For him, the nymph a rich repast ordains,
160 Such as the mortal life of man sustains;
Before herself were placed the cates divine,
Ambrosial banquet, and celestial wine.
Their hunger satiate, and their thirst represt,
Thus spoke Calypso to her god-like guest;
Ulysses! (with a sigh she thus began ;)

245

250

255

When he who thunders rent his bark in twain,
And sunk his brave companions in the main,
Alone, abandon'd, in mid-ocean toss'd,

The sport of winds, and driven from every coast,
Hither this man of iniseries I led,

Received the friendless, and the hungry fed;
Nay promised (vainly promised!) to bestow
Immortal life, exempt from age and woe.
Tis past-and Jove decrees he shall remove;
Gods as we are, we are but slaves to Jove.
Go then he may (he must, if he ordain,
Try all those dangers, all those deeps, again :)
But never, never shall Calypso send

To toils like these, her husband and her friend.
What ships have I, what sailors to convey,
What oars to cut the long laborious way?
Yet, I'll direct the safest means to go;
That last advice is all I can bestow

To her the power who bears the charming rod :
Dismiss the man, nor irritate the god;
Prevent the rage of him who reigns above,
For what so dreadful as the wrath of Jove?
Thus having said, he cut the cleaving sky,
And in a moment vanish'd from her eye.
The nymph, obedient to divine command,
To seek Ulysses, paced along the sand.
Him pensive on the lonely beach she found,
With streaming eyes in briny torrents drown'd,
And inly pining for his native shore;
For now the soft enchantress pleased no inore:

.80 Their earth-born beauties with the heavenly fair?
Alas! for this (the prudent man replies)
Against Ulysses shall thy anger rise?
Loved and adored, oh goddess, as thou art,
Forgive the weakness of a human heart.

185 Though well I see thy graces far above
The dear, though mortal, object of my love,
Of youth eternal will the difference know,
And the short date of fading charms below;
Yet every day, while absent thus I roam,
190 I languish to return and die at home.

Whate'er the gods shall destine me to bear
In the black ocean, or the watry war,
Tis mine to master with a constant mind;
Inured to perils, to the worst resign'd.
195 By seas, by wars, so many dangers run ;
Still I can suffer: their high will be done!

275

280

285

The nymph's fair head a veil transparent graced,
Her swelling loins a radiant zone embraced
With flowers of gold: an under robe, unbound,
In snowy waves flow'd glittering on the ground.
Forth issuing thus, she gave him first to wield
A weighty ax with truest temper steel'd,
And doubled-edged; the handle smooth and plain,
Wrought of the clouded olive's easy grain ;
And next, a wedge to drive with sweepy sway:
Then to the neighbouring forest led the way.
On the lone island's utmost verge there stood
Of poplars, pines, and firs, a lofty wood,
Whose leafless summits to the skies aspire,
Scorch'd by the sun, or sear'd by heavenly fire
(Already dried.) These pointing out to view,
The nymph just shew'd him, and with tears withdrew.
Now toils the hero: trees on trees o'erthrown
Fall crackling round him, and the forests groan:
Sudden, full twenty on the plain are strow'd,

With those he pierced them, and with clinchers bound. Long and capacious as a shipwright forms