250

As to the shipwreck'd mariner, the shores
Delightful rise, when angry Neptune roars ;
Then, when the surge in thunder mounts the sky,
And gulf'd in crowds at once the sailors die;
If one more happy, while the tempest raves,
Outlives the tumult of conflicting waves,
All pale, with ooze deform’d, he views the strand, 255
And plunging forth with transport grasps the land:
The ravish'd queen with equal rapture glows,
Clasps her loved lord, and to his bosom grows.
Nor had they ended till the morning ray,
But Pallas backward held the rising day,

260
The wheels of night retarding, to detain
The gay Aurora in the wavy main;
Whose flaming steeds emerging through the night,
Beam o'er the eastern hills with streaming light.

At length Ulysses with a sigh replies: 265 “ Yet fate, yet cruel fate repose denies; A labour long and hard, remains behind; By Heaven above, by hell beneath enjoin'd: For to Tiresias through the eternal gates Of hell I trode, to learn my future fates. 270 But end we here; the night demands repose, Be deck'd the couch! and peace a while, my woes!"

To whom the queen: “ Thy word we shall obey, And deck the couch; far hence be woes away ; Since the just gods, who tread the starry plains, 275 Restore thee safe, since my Ulysses reigns. But what those perils Heaven decrees, impart: Knowledge may grieve, but fear distracts the heart."

To this the king: "Ah, why must I disclose A dreadful story of approaching woes?

230 Why in this hour of transport wound thy ears, When thou must learn what I must speak with

tears? Heaven, by the Theban ghost, thy spouse decrees, Torn from thy arms, to sail a length of seas; From realm to realm, a nation to explore 285 Who ne'er knew salt, or heard the billows roar,

HOM. III.-CC

301

Nor saw gay vessel stem the surgy plain,
A painted wonder, flying on the main :
An oar my hand must bear; a shepherd eyes
The unknown instrument with strange surprise, 290
And calls a corn van: this upon the plain
I fix, and hail the monarch of the main;
Then bathe his altars with the mingled gore
Of victims vow'd, a ram, a bull, a boar;
Thence swift resailing to my native shores, 295
Due victims slay to all the ethereal powers.
Then Heaven decrees, in peace to end my days,
And steal myself from life by slow decays;
Unknown to pain, in age resign my breath,
When late stern Neptune points the shaft of death;
To the dark grave retiring as to rest;
My people blessing, by my people bless'd.
“ Such future scenes the all-righteous powers dis-

play
By their dread seer, and such my future day.”

To whom thus firm of soul: "If ripe for death, 305 And full of days, thou gently yield thy breath; While Heaven a kind release from ills foreshows; Triumph, thou happy victor of thy woes!"

But Euryclea, with despatchful care, And sage Eurynome, the couch prepare : 310 Instant they bid the blazing torch display Around the dome an artificial day; Then to repose her steps the matron bends, And to the queen Eurynome descends; A torch she bears, to light with guiding fires 315 The royal pair; she guides them, and retires. Then instant his fair spouse Ulysses led To the chaste love-rites of the nuptial bed.

And now the blooming youths and sprightly fair Cease the gay dance, and to their rest repair; 320 But in discourse the king and consort lay, While the soft hours stole unperceived away;

Intent he hears Penelope disclose
A mournful story of domestic woes,
His servants' insults, his invaded bed,

325
How his whole flocks and herds exhausted bled,
His generous wines dishonour'd shed in vain,
And the wild riots of the suitor train.
The king alternate a dire tale relates,
Of wars, of triumphs, and disastrous fates; 330
All he unfolds ; his listening spouse turns pale
With pleasing horror at the dreadful tale ;
Sleepless devours each word; and hears how slain
Cicons on Cicons swell the ensanguined plain ;
How to the land of Lote, unbless'd he sails ; 335
And images the rills and flowery vales !
How dash'd like dogs, his friends the Cyclop tore,
(Not unrevenged,) and quaffd the spouting gore ;
How the loud storms in prison bound, he sails
From friendly Æolus with prosperous gales; 340
Yet fate withstands! a sudden tempest roars,
And whirls him groaning from his native shores :
How on the barbarous Læstrigonian coast,
By savage hands his fleet and friends he lost;
How scarce himself survived; he paints the bower,
The spells of Circe, and her magic power;

346 His dreadful journey to the realms beneath, To seek Tiresias in the vales of death ; How in the doleful mansions he survey'd His royal mother, pale Anticlea's shade; 350 And friends in battle slain, heroic ghosts! Then how, unharm’d, he pass'd the Siren coasts, The justling rocks where fierce Charybdis raves, And howling Scylla whirls her thunderous waves, The cave of death! How his companions slay 355 The sacred oxen to the god of day. Till Jove in wrath the rattling tempest guides, And whelms the offenders in the roaring tides: How struggling through the surge he reach'd the

shores or fair Ogygia, and Calypso's bowers;

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Where the gay blooming nymph constrain'd his stay,
With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay;
And promised, vainly promised, to bestow
Immortal life, exempt from age and wo:
How saved from storms Phæacia's coast he trod,
By great Alcinous honour'd as a god,

366 Who gave him last his country to behold, With change of raiment, brass, and heaps of gold.

He ended, sinking into sleep, and shares A sweet forgetfulness of all his cares.

370 Soon as soft slumber eased the toils of day, Minerva rushes through the aerial way, And bids Aurora with her golden wheels Flame from the ocean o'er the western hills; Up rose Ulysses from the genial bed,

375 And thus with thought mature the monarch said :

My queen, my consort! through a length of years We drank the cup of sorrow mix'd with tears; Thou, for thy lord: while me the immortal powers Detain'd reluctant from my native shores.

380 Now, bless'd again by Heaven, the queen display, And rule our palace with an equal sway. Be it my care, by loans, or martial toils, To throng my empty folds with gifts or spoils. But now I haste to bless Laertes' eyes

385 With sight of his Ulysses ere he dies; The good old man, to wasting woes a prey, Weeps a sad life in solitude away. But hear, though wise! This morning shall unfold The deathful scene, on heroes heroes rollid. 390 Thou with thy maids within the palace stay, From all the scene of tumult far away!"

He spoke, and sheath'd in arms incessant flies To wake his son, and bid his friends arise. “ To arms !" aloud he cries: his friends obey, 395 With glittering arms their manly limbs array, And pass the city gate; Ulysses leads the way. Now flames the rosy dawn, but Pallas shrouds The latent warriors in a veil of clouds.

BOOK XXIV.

ARGUMENT.

The souls of the suitors are conducted by Mercury to the in

fernal shades--Ulysses in the country goes to the retirement of his father Laertes; he finds him in his garden all alone : the manner of his discovery to him is beautifully describedThey return together to his lodge, and the king is acknowledged by Dolius and the servants-T'he Ithacensians, led by Eupithes, the father of Antinous, rise against Ulysses, who gives them battle, in which Eupithes is killed by Laertes; and the goddess Pallas makes a lasting peace between Ulys. ses and his subjects, which concludes the Odyssey.

CYLLENIUS now to Pluto's dreary reign
Conveys the dead, a lamentable train !
The golden wand, that causes sleep to fly,
Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye,
That drives the ghosts to realms of night or day, 5
Points out the long uncomfortable way.
Trembling the spectres glide, and plaintive vent
Thin, hollow screams, along the deep descent.
As in the cavern of some rifted den,
Where flock nocturnal bats, and birds obscene: 10
Cluster'd they hang, till at some sudden shock
They move, and murmurs run through all the rock!
So cowering fled the sable heaps of ghosts,
And such a scream filli'd all the dismal coasts.
And now they reach'd the earth's remotest ends, 15
And now the gates where evening Sol descends,
And Leucas' rock, and ocean's utmost streams,
And now pervade the dusky land of dreams,
And rest at last, where souls unbodied dwell
In ever-flowering meads of asphodel.

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