Circe in vain invites the feast to share;

Absent I ponder, and absorb'd in care:

While scenes of woe rose anxious in my breast,
The queen beheld me, and these words address'd :

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'Why sits Ulysses silent and apart,

Some hoard of grief close harbour'd at his heart?
Untouch'd before thee stand the cates divine,

And unregarded laughs the rosy wine.

Can yet a doubt or any dread remain,

When sworn that oath which never can be vain?' "I answered: Goddess! human is my breast,

By justice sway'd, by tender pity press'd:

Ill fits it me, whose friends are sunk to beasts,

To quaff thy bowls, or riot in thy feasts.

Me would'st thou please? for them thy cares employ,
And them to me restore, and me to joy.'

"With that she parted: in her potent hand

She bore the virtue of the magic wand.
Then, hastening to the sties, set wide the door,
Urged forth, and drove the bristly herd before;
Unwieldy, out they rush'd with general cry,
Enormous beasts dishonest to the eye.

Now touch'd by counter-charms they change again,
And stand majestic, and recall'd to men.

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Those hairs of late that bristled every part,

Fall off, miraculous effect of art!

Till all the form in full proportion rise,

More young, more large, more graceful to my eyes.

They saw, they knew me, and with eager pace
Clung to their master in a long embrace:

470

Sad, pleasing sight! with tears each eye ran o'er,
And sobs of joy re-echoed through the bower;
Even Circe wept, her adamantine heart
Felt pity enter, and sustain'd her part.

"Son of Laërtes! (then the queen began)
Oh much-enduring, much-experienced man!
Haste to thy vessel on the sea-beat shore,
Unload thy treasures, and the galley moor;
Then bring thy friends, secure from future harms,
And in our grottoes stow thy spoils and arms.'
"She said. Obedient to her high command
I quit the place, and hasten to the strand.
My sad companions on the beach I found,
Their wistful eyes in floods of sorrow drown'd.
As from fresh pastures and the dewy field
(When loaded cribs their evening banquet yield)
The lowing herds return; around them throng
With leaps and bounds their late imprison'd young,
Rush to their mothers with unruly joy,

And echoing hills return the tender cry:
So round me press'd, exulting at my sight,
With cries and agonies of wild delight,

The weeping sailors; nor less fierce their joy
Than if return'd to Ithaca from Troy.

'Ah master! ever honour'd, ever dear!

(These tender words on every side I hear)

What other joy can equal thy return?

Not that loved country for whose sight we mourn,
The soil that nursed us, and that gave us breath:
But ah! relate our lost companions' death.'

"I answer'd cheerful: Haste, your galley moor, And bring our treasures and our arms ashore :

Those in yon hollow caverns let us lay;
Then rise, and follow where I lead the way.
Your fellows live; believe your eyes, and come
To taste the joys of Circe's sacred dome.'

"With ready speed the joyful crew obey; Alone Eurylochus persuades their stay.

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'Whither (he cried), ah whither will ye run?
Seek ye to meet those evils ye should shun?
Will you the terrors of the dome explore,
In swine to grovel, or in lions roar,
Or wolf-like howl away the midnight hour
In dreadful watch around the magic bower?
Remember Cyclops, and his bloody deed;
The leader's rashness made the soldiers bleed.'

"I heard incensed, and first resolved to speed My flying falchion at the rebel's head.

Dear as he was, by ties of kindred bound,

510

This hand had stretch'd him breathless on the ground, 520

But all at once my interposing train

For mercy pleaded, nor could plead in vain.

Leave here the man who dares his prince desert,

Leave to repentance and his own sad heart,

To guard the ship. Seek we the sacred shades
Of Circe's palace, where Ulysses leads.'

"This with one voice declared, the rising train
Left the black vessel by the murmuring main.
Shame touch'd Eurylochus's alter'd breast;
He fear'd my threats, and follow'd with the rest.
"Meanwhile the goddess, with indulgent cares
And social joys, the late transform'd repairs;
The bath, the feast, their fainting soul renews:
Rich in refulgent robes, and dropping balmy dews:
Brightening with joy their eager eyes behold
Each other's face, and each his story told;
Then gushing tears the narrative confound,
And with their sobs the vaulted roofs resound.

When hush'd their passion, thus the goddess cries:
'Ulysses, taught by labours to be wise,
Let this short memory of grief suffice.

To me are known the various woes ye bore,
In storms by sea, in perils on the shore;
Forget whatever was in Fortune's power,
And share the pleasures of this genial hour.
Such be your minds as ere ye left your coast,
Or learn'd to sorrow for a country lost.
Exiles and wanderers now, where'er ye go,
Too faithful memory renews your woe:
The cause removed, habitual griefs remain,
And the soul saddens by the use of pain.'

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"Her kind entreaty moved the general breast;
Tired with long toil, we willing sunk to rest.
We plied the banquet, and the bowl we crown'd,
Till the full circle of the year came round.
But when the seasons, following in their train,
Brought back the months, the days, and hours again;
As from a lethargy at once they rise,

And urge their chief with animating cries:
"Is this, Ulysses, our inglorious lot?

And is the name of Ithaca forgot?
Shall never the dear land in prospect rise,
Or the loved palace glitter in our eyes?'

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Melting I heard; yet till the sun's decline
Prolong'd the feast, and quaff'd the rosy wine:
But when the shades came on at evening hour,
And all lay slumbering in the dusky bower,
I came a suppliant to fair Circe's bed,
The tender moment seized, and thus I said:
'Be mindful, goddess! of thy promise made;
Must sad Ulysses ever be delay'd?

Around their lord my sad companions mourn,
Each breast beats homeward, anxious to return :
If but a moment parted from thy eyes,

Their tears flow round me, and my heart complies.
"Go then (she cried), ah go! yet think, not I,
Not Circe, but the Fates, your wish deny.
Ah hope not yet to breathe thy native air!
Far other journey first demands thy care;
To tread th' uncomfortable paths beneath,
And view the realms of darkness and of death.
There seek the Theban bard, deprived of sight;
Within, irradiate with prophetic light;
To whom Persephonè, entire and whole,
Gave to retain th' unseparated soul:
The rest are forms, of empty ether made ;
Impassive semblance, and a flitting shade.'

"Struck at the word, my very heart was dead:
Pensive I sate: my tears bedew'd the bed;
To hate the light and life my soul begun,
And saw that all was grief beneath the sun.
Composed at length, the gushing tears suppress'd,
And my toss'd limbs now wearied into rest,
'How shall I tread (I cried), ah, Circe! say,
The dark descent, and who shall guide the way?

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Can living eyes behold the realms below?

666

What bark to waft me, and what wind to blow?'
Thy fated road (the magic power replied),
Divine Ulysses! asks no mortal guide.
Rear but the mast, the spacious sail display,
The northern winds shall wing thee on thy way.
Soon shalt thou reach old Ocean's utmost ends,
Where to the main the shelving shore descends;
The barren trees of Proserpine's black woods,
Poplars and willows trembling o'er the floods:
There fix thy vessel in the lonely bay,
And enter there the kingdoms void of day:
Where Phlegethon's loud torrents, rushing down,
Hiss in the flaming gulf of Acheron;

600

And where, slow-rolling from the Stygian bed,
Cocytus' lamentable waters spread :

610

Where the dark rock o'erhangs th' infernal lake,
And mingling streams eternal murmurs make.
First draw thy falchion, and on every side
Trench the black earth a cubit long and wide:
To all the shades around libations pour,
And o'er th' ingredients strew the hallow'd flour:
New wine and milk, with honey temper'd bring,
And living water from the crystal spring.
Then the wan shades and feeble ghosts implore,
With promised offerings on thy native shore;
A barren cow, the stateliest of the isle,

And, heap'd with various wealth, a blazing pile:
These to the rest; but to the seer must bleed
A sable ram, the pride of all thy breed.
These solemn vows and holy offerings paid
To all the phantom nations of the dead;
Be next thy care the sable sheep to place
Full o'er the pit, and hellward turn their face:
But from th' infernal rite thine eye withdraw,
And back to Ocean glance with reverend awe.
Sudden shall skim along the dusky glades
Thin airy shoals, and visionary shades.
Then give command the sacrifice to haste,
Let the flay'd victims in the flame be cast,
And sacred vows and mystic song applied
To grisly Pluto and his gloomy bride.
Wide o'er the pool thy falchion waved around
Shall drive the spectres from forbidden ground:

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