For first, a fountain of sweet-smelling wine
Came gushing o'er the deck with sprightly shine;
And odours, not of earth, their senses took;
The pallid wonder spread from look to look;
And then a vine-tree over-ran the sail,

Its green arms tossing to the pranksome gale;
And then an ivy, with a flowering shoot,
Ran up the mast in rings, and kissed the fruit,
Which here and there the dipping vine let down;

On every oar there was a garland crown.—

But now the crew called out To shore! To shore !'
When, leaping backward with an angry roar,

The dreadful stranger to a lion turned;
His glaring eyes beneath the hatches burned:
Then rushing forward, he became a bear,
With fearful change bewildering their despair;
And then again a lion, ramping high
From seat to seat, and looking horribly.
Heaped at the stern, and scrambling all along,
The trembling wretches round the Master throng,
Who calmly stood, for he had done no wrong.
Oh, at that minute, to be safe on land!
But now, in his own shape, the God's at hand,
And spurning first the Captain from the side,
The rest leaped after in the plunging tide;
For one and all, as they had done the same,
The same deserved; and dolphins they became.
The God then turning to the Master, broke
In happy-making smiles, and stoutly spoke :-
'Be of good courage, blest companion mine;
Bacchus am I, the roaring God of Wine;
And well shall this day be, for thee and thine.'
And so, all reverence and all joy to thee,

Son of the sparkle-smiling Semele!

Must never bard forget thee in his song,
Who makest it flow so sweetly and so strong.

80

ANACREON

ODE XIX

[First published in Juvenilia, 1801. Not reprinted.]

THE tippling earth drinks up the dew,
The trees, O tippling earth, drink you;
Neptune drinks air at ev'ry motion,
And Sol drinks Neptune like a potion:
Till madam Luna, for a light,

Drinks up old Sol himself at night!

Why then d'ye hinder me from drinking,
When Heav'n itself 's my way of thinking?

[First published in The Examiner, March 31, 1816, as Anacreon's sprightly old Age. Ode 54.' Reprinted 1818. Text 1818.]

THE SEAT UNDER THE TREE
[First published 1818. Not reprinted.]
Παρα την σκιην Βαθυλλε.

HERE'S the place to seat us, love!
A perfect arbour! Look above,
How the delicate sprays, like hair,
Bend them to the breaths of air!

Listen, too! It is a rill,
Telling us its gentle will.
Who that knows what luxury is,
Could go by a place like this?

PORTRAIT OF HIS MISTRESS

[First published in The Indicator, October 13, 1819; not reprinted.]

[First published in The Indicator, March 8, 1820; reprinted 1832-60. Text 1832-60.] JUNO, jealous of the child which Jupiter has had by Alcmena, sends two dreadful serpents to devour the boy. The serpents come upon him, while he and his halfbrother Iphiclus, the son of Amphitryon, are sleeping together. Iphiclus, the child of the mortal father, is terrified Hercules, the infant demi-god, seizes and destroys them, as if they were living playthings. His mother consults the prophet Tiresias on the occasion, and is told of her son's future renown.

:

YOUNG Hercules had now beheld the light
Only ten months, when once upon a night,
Alcmena, having washed, and given the breast
To both her heavy boys, laid them to rest.
Their cradle was a noble shield of brass,
Won by her lord from slaughtered Pterelas.

Gently she laid them down, and gently laid

Her hand on both their heads, and yearned, and said,
Sleep, sleep, my boys, a light and pleasant sleep,

My little souls, my twins, my guard and keep!
Sleep happy, and wake happy!' And she kept
Rocking the mighty buckler, and they slept.

At midnight, when the Bear went down, and broad
Orion's shoulder lit the starry road,

There came, careering through the opening halls,
On livid spires, two dreadful animals-
Serpents; whom Juno, threatening as she drove,
Had sent there to devour the boy of Jove.
Orbing their blood-fed bellies in and out,
They towered along; and as they looked about,
An evil fire out of their eyes came lamping;
A heavy poison dropt about their champing.

And now they have arrived, and think to fall
To their dread meal, when lo! (for Jove sees all)
The house is lit, as with the morning's break,
And the dear children of Alcmena wake.
The younger one, as soon as he beheld
The evil creatures coming on the shield,
And saw their loathsome teeth, began to cry

And shriek, and kick away the clothes, and try
All his poor little instincts of escape;
The other, grappling, seized them by the nape
Of either poisonous neck, for all their twists,

30

And held, like iron, in his little fists.

Buckled and bound he held them, struggling wild;
And so they wound about the boy, the child,

The long-begetting boy, the suckling dear,
That never teased his nurses with a tear.

Tired out at length, they trail their spires and gasp,
Locked in that young indissoluble grasp.

Alcmena heard the noise, and Wake,' she cried,
'Amphitryon, wake; for terror holds me tied !
Up: stay not for the sandals: hark! the child,
The youngest-how he shrieks! The babe is wild:
And see, the walls and windows! 'Tis as light
As it 'twere day, and yet 'tis surely night.
There's something dreadful in the house; there is
Indeed, dear husband!' He arose at this;
And seized his noble sword, which overhead
Was always hanging at the cedar-bed:

The hilt he grasped in one hand, and the sheath
In t'other; and drew forth the blade of death.

34 his] it 's 1820

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All in an instant, like a stroke of doom,

Returning midnight smote upon the room.

Amphitryon called; and woke from heavy sleep His household, who lay breathing hard and deep;

'Bring lights here from the hearth lights, lights; and guard
The doorways; rise, ye ready labourers hard!'

He said; and lights came pouring in, and all
The busy house was up, in bower and hall;
But when they saw the little suckler, how
He grasped the monsters, and with earnest brow
Kept beating them together, plaything-wise,
They shrieked aloud; but he, with laughing eyes,
Soon as he saw Amphitryon, leaped and sprung
Childlike, and at his feet the dead disturbers flung.

Then did Alcmena to her bosom take
Her feebler boy, who could not cease to shake.
The other son, Amphitryon took and laid
Beneath a fleece; and so returned to bed.

Soon as the cock, with his thrice-echoing cheer,
Told that the gladness of the day was near,
Alcmena sent for old, truth-uttering
Tiresias; and she told him all this thing,

And bade him say what she might think and do;
'Nor do thou fear,' said she, to let me know,
Although the mighty gods should meditate
Aught ill; for man can never fly from Fate.
And thus thou seest' (and here her smiling eyes
Looked through a blush) how well I teach the wise.'

So spoke the queen. Then he, with glad old tone;
Be of good heart, thou blessed bearing one,
True blood of Perseus; for by my sweet sight,
Which once divided these poor lids with light,
Many Greek women, as they sit and weave
The gentle thread across their knees at eve,
Shall sing of thee and thy beloved name;
Thou shalt be blest by every Argive dame:
For unto this thy son it shall be given,

With his broad heart to win his way to heaven;

Twelve labours shall he work; and all accurst

And brutal things o'erthrow, brute men the worst;
And in Trachinia shall the funeral pyre

Purge his mortalities away with fire;

And he shall mount amid the stars and be

Acknowledged kin to those who envied thee,

And sent these den-born shapes to crush his destiny.'

72 Told that] Proclaimed 1820.

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